People politics

The surprise decision of Chiz Escudero to resign from the NPC was finalized in his mind and in his heart only on Tuesday morning, the day before he was expected to rally the troops at the Bahay ng Alumni of the University of the Philippines. A simple but emotionally rousing event had been planned to begin at 5:30 on Wednesday afternoon. After a quick lunch at his informal campaign headquarters, the cozy Taste of L.A. along Alejandro Roces St., conveniently two hundred meters away from his small townhouse unit in New Manila, the decision to resign was firmed up with heavy heart.

There was absolutely no rancour in his heart towards anyone in the party hierarchy. But clear positions and personal principles could not be viewed sceptically by the public because of present company. Present company are old and genuine friends --- conscientious legislators with their constituents’ interest principal to them, with a loyal voter following brought about by years of good service. But in the larger view of the national interest at a time when public despair and despondency threaten to break the polity up, new solutions and fresh ideas, this amorphously defined cry for “Pagbabago” (Change), needed positing. And solutions offered had to go beyond motherhood statements, but specific stand on various policy issues.

For “change” to be genuine and meaningful, the tired old buzzwords and catch phrases ring empty. And for several months, Escudero had been debating these policy issues with friends and confidantes, former classmates and fraternity brothers, new-found friends among “low-involvement” young businessmen and sectoral leaders. A new kind of change was slowly defined.. Bagong Pagbabago.

He reviewed the sad and always compromised history of the nation since the birth of the First Republic. He was after all, a martial law “baby”, born on October 10, 1969, yet unable to understand what authoritarianism was all about, except that there was “peace” in the street where he grew up in Quezon City. It was his maternal lolo’s house, a compound shared by his teacher mom and his teacher dad with the entire kin. His “tatay”, Salvador, could not afford a house and lot of their own, even if he had become the youngest dean of the University of the Philippines. Ferdinand Marcos saw promise in the abilities of his tatay, who was a doctor of veterinary medicine, and tapped Salvador, better known as “Sonny” into government service. When the legendary agriculture minister Bong Tanco died, Marcos appointed Sonny as replacement, in the late days of authoritarianism. Chiz was a gangly young boy at the time. He once asked his father why, unlike kids of officials of lesser rank, he had to make do with low allowances and could not even be gifted with a Game and Watch plaything. His father merely smiled and played with the young man’s softly curled hair. Department of Agriculture old-timers have very high regard for Sonny, who was returned to their helm by President Fidel V. Ramos. FSGO’s venerable, Ting Paterno, a man I admire most, once affirmed to me Sonny Escudero’s integrity as a fellow cabinet member under Marcos.

The young Escudero saw how “people power” so soon after its proud birth, was compromised in the shoals of the return of traditional politics. And how, in the praxis of multi-party politics, the party as an institution became little more than temporary alliances for political convenience. So when he entered politics as a young congressman for the first district of Sorsogon, he joined the Nationalist People’s Coalition, which, despite having lost the presidential plum in 1992, remained fairly intact and cohesive, bound by personal friendship with its founder, Ambassador Danding Cojuangco. Undoubtedly traditional, like most every other political party, national, local or regional, young Escudero became part of the traditional panoply of our politics.

But the test of his convictions occurred when Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came to power in the heels of the touted second “people power”. He was with Erap until the end, and thus became an oppositionist as he began his second term. He even became the spokesman of FPJ in 2004 against incumbent GMA, who some of his own party-mates supported, (I was the spokesman of “maverick” Ping Lacson, and up to now, Chiz and I rib each other about our contrary “performances” in several debates then). This feat he did even as he stood for his final re-election as congressman, and won. It was in that last term where his political star shone. Elected minority floor leader of a much-decimated opposition (his own party, NPC, chose to align in coalition with GMA), he led that small but vociferous pack of two dozen in filing impeachment cases against the “elected” president in the wake of the Hello Garci revelations. Many conscienticized congressmen from the majority crossed party lines to join a failed but valiant political adventure. They lost to the money and wiles of Dona Gloria, but Escudero and company won the hearts of the people. Thus, when he ended his term in 2007, and ran for the Senate on sparse resources, a grateful nation gave him 18 million votes, and placed him second among twelve. He has distinguished himself in the Senate, where his searing questions in committee deliberations earned for him the respect of older peers.

Young Escudero studies assiduously, and has a keen analytical mind. In the few months that I have come to know him closer, I discovered that he also has a photographic memory. That explains what I used to think was nothing else but articulate abilities, which my friend Conrad de Qurios once dismissed as “glibness”. Chiz has this uncanny ability, so rare these days, to virtually memorize what he himself pounded on his Mac. When time to speak came, the words just flowed seamlessly. Amazing. (That was my fear when I was accepted into the Ateneo College of Law. Mahina ako sa memorizing. So while waiting for the first semester at law school to start, and I received a job offer from a multinational, the salary of which was three times higher than my classmates in undergrad got, I chucked off law school, to my eternal regret.)

Through the many days and nights that Escudero discussed his thoughts with me and others, he had a consistent plaint, expressed mostly in Tagalog even if his proficiency in English was beyond reproach. Twice we had “people power”, but power never really went to the people. The poor are as wretchedly despondent as ever, and political power has only served the economic interests of the few. As it was in Marcos, so it was with Cory and beyond. And as degenerately worst in Gloria’s reign. He has fashioned in his mind, after several meetings with experts in various academic disciplines, or read their published and unpublished work, what we call a new kind of change. Bagong Pagbabago --- not the usual motherhood statements, but specific solutions that could serve as the lynchpin of a vision that would make the common man, middle-class or poor, realize that he matters in the scheme of things.

People power never brought power to the people. It was exploited by the powerful and wealthy few to bring them more power and more wealth. For the people to feel that to them belongs the power in a sovereign and democratic nation, then what must be practiced is “people politics”, in present practice nothing else but power politics in the guise of party politics.

Escudero’s message would not resonate with the people if his politics reeked of “old and inherited” wealth, though not his own, and certainly not of “new wealth” with questionable origins, as in the case of a man born poor but ascended the economic ladder quickly through wheeling and dealing.

Hindi pwedeng Lumang Pulitika. Lalong hindi pwedeng Nagpayaman sa Pulitika.

The idealism remains intact. The vision is clear. The intent to serve in higher capacity remains.

Cynics scoff in scorn, in a political environment where “practical” (read that as traditional) politics is the rule. Quixotic, many dismiss.

But in a time of continuing blight, with 65% of the population young but helpless, young but hopeless, reaching for one’s North Star must be done without mental reservation or emotional qualm.

I have chosen to accompany young Chiz Escudero in his political odyssey.

And so this is my last article until after the tenth of May, 2010. I had hoped to invite the publisher, boss Jake, and the editors, boss Pocholo and Manong Joy among others in Malaya, to lunch or dinner to explain why I must take a leave of absence from column-writing, but the whirl of events that led to young Escudero’s decision prevented an earlier person-to-person farewell.

I thank Malaya and Abante, and all the staff, particularly Che who reminded me of my deadlines patiently, for the privilege of writing these past five years and five months.

* * *

P.S. When young Chiz informed his ninang, Mrs. Jesusa Sonora Poe, Susan Roces to every Filipino, that he would begin his political odyssey on October 28, she asked --- “Why the date?”

Chiz replied: “Wala lang po. Nagkataon lang dahil na-postpone na nga”.

And Mrs. Poe smilingly said, “That is the Feast of St. Jude, the patron saint of the impossible”.

Chiz laughed upon the realization of the religious significance of the date. Incidentally, St. Jude is located right beside Malacanang. Serendipity.

How do you read Chiz?

Yesterday morning, young senator Francis Joseph “Chiz” Escudero faced the media in a press conference to declare an overdose of political news. It was not so intended.

Early this year, he had told media that he would declare his political plans only after he reached the ripe young age of forty. That is the constitutional age requirement. Tying oneself to a definitive timeline was both good and bad tactic. Good because it keeps everyone guessing, while you inch into the public consciousness without being necessarily a threat to the earlier declared or earlier-perceived “presidentiables”. Bad because having made a definitive timeline, he was boxed into it, even when the fast-paced developments in the political scene after the death of Cory Aquino demanded quick answers and quick reactions.

Of course Tita Cory’s death and the “halo” it placed on her son Noynoy’s head were quite unpredictable. Mar’s acceptance of the reality that he was not so fated to become the country’s 15th president, followed nine days later by Noynoy’s desire to be “it”, was a game changer.

The “movie” in Chiz’ mind was to have begun with a declaration of his intent on October 12, the Monday following his 40th birthday which was October 10. But on September 26, Ondoy inundated the metropolis, laying to waste so much property and taking so many lives. Still dazed at so much destruction, Pepeng tarried in the north and brought so much rain that likewise flooded out many provinces, again taking lives and laying crops and livelihood destitute on October 9. It would have been grossly insensitive to declare political plans at such a time of instant grief and sorrow. Everyone took time out, and even Erap postponed the premiere night of his re-run.

The Nationalist People’s Coalition, had two “presidentiables”, Sen. Loren Legarda who had run for vice-president with the legendary FPJ in 2004. As fate and Garci would have it, they “lost”. But she made a spectacular comeback in the elections of 2007, when she topped the senatorial race. Next to her was the “enfant merveilleuse” of Philippine politics, 38-year old Chiz, who had capped nine years of being congressman of Sorsogon as captain ball of the valiant try to impeach Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2005.

Little by little, Chiz overtook Loren’s early lead in the surveys, which has become the barometer of national political chances. In a sense, surveys have substituted for party conventions in a polity where parties have become little more than temporary shelters or political barkadahan. Thus, as the November 30 deadline draws near, Chiz was touted as NPC’s presidential candidate, and Loren as his “vice”.

The earlier “events” chronology, we learned, was for Chiz to declare on or right after his 40th natal day, followed by Loren on her mother’s birth anniversary on October 23. Then the party would have given its official imprimatur sometime in November. Stretching the process gave the candidates more media moments, as Mar and Noynoy likewise did. But as this schedule turned awry, Loren came first with her declaration of purpose and “secondary” goal. Yesterday was Escudero’s turn to slay the suspense.

But as things would have it, there was talk that not all was well with young Chiz and the party he belonged to since 1998 when he first became congressman. Further fuelling the speculation was Loren’s rather strange statement that she was running with God-knows-who as her head. Strange because as NPC stalwart since 2007, she was supposed to run with another member of her party.

Yesterday Escudero poured it before the public when he began his declaration by saying that he had resigned from the Nationalist People’s Coalition. That statement stunned the public, for he had been with the party for a far longer time than Loren. What went wrong?

He was running as himself, not as one bound by the party’s interests. He did not want to be “chained” to party interests, and in an unusually bold statement, virtually made a declaration of independence from party politics, and embraced “people politics”. One who desires the presidency, he said, must forswear narrow party interests in favour of the larger interest of people and nation. In Pilipino, he was saying, “the people must be one’s party”.

It was a “revolt” against the political system we have become accustomed to, one where the landed elite, the billionaire class, the oligarchy always held sway. It was a polity dominated by economic interests of the few who “own” the wealth of the nation, not always to the long-lasting benefit of the many, the teeming many, who own so little.

Escudero’s introduction of himself as “Hindi ako heredero, hindi ako haciendero, at lalong hindi ako bilyonaryo” was an indictment not so much a description of his competition, but more --- of the system. Saying that he, a product of the public school system, son of teachers, whose veterinarian father made good likewise in government and politics but has kept his integrity intact, a lawyer who once taught in his alma mater, the University of the Philippines, and has since become a well-known congressman and senator, was just an “ordinary” guy, without the cachet of “pedigree”. And so he is asking the people if the system would allow those born with neither pedigree nor wealth, legal or illegal, to get a chance at becoming its president.

There was a time, before and after the war, when such was possible. Quezon was a famulo (working student) at Letran; Quirino was a jail warden’s son who was deprived of material wealth until he married a rich Chinese mestiza. Garcia of Bohol was only a teacher’s son. Diosdado Macapagal was the son of landless tenants. The system then, despite and probably because of strong party institutions, allowed the poor, the ordinary but deserving, to be offered to the sovereign people for the highest post in the land. Now, with the party system decrepit, and presidential campaigns costing billions, with the enormously wealthy controlling the economy and the polity as well, young Chiz threw back the question to the people --- Is people politics possible? Has it’s time come?

* * *

As I am assuming an active role in the forthcoming political campaign, I have to take a leave from column-writing, so that personal and professional bias does not colour my writing. Tomorrow’s column shall be my last until after the elections of 2010.

Low involvement

Despite the screaming headlines about the politics of 2010, the average Filipino voter has very “low involvement” in the matter of choosing who should lead the nation after years and years of the disaster named Gloria.

ABS-CBN can tout “Ako ang Simula” and drum up voter interest in the all-important task of choosing who shall steer the affairs of state come noon of June 30, 2010, but even the new voter registration has turned up abysmally low numbers, thanks in part to the long lines that plague Comelec registration centers. Most of those lining up are the poor, principally because their barangay chairmen have been instructed by the local mayoralty aspirant to ensure his would-be followers register and vote. Otherwise, there is little “kusang-loob”.

Why is this? Why do voters prefer tele-novela as escapist prescription to the seminal pains of survival in the benighted land, instead of listening to the promise of deliverance mouthed, some convincingly, many unconvincingly, by the candidates for president in occasional talk-shows? The answer of course is partly because ANC is cable and does not come free, unlike the tele-novelas of GMA and ABS, paid for the masa by numerous advertisements, some of them even political ads, while cable ANC is mostly English, not quite the language the masa understand. Those of us who read the papers, watch the news on TV and listen to commentators on radio are an insignificant minority of less than 10%.of the voting population. The rest do not care. In the words of a respected market research specialist, they have “low involvement”.

So does Erap still excite? Look at the numbers in the surveys. Those are likely to be the “loyal” core who at one time or another received a dole-out; Erap’s legendary munificence must have saved them from hunger for a day or two. They “feel” for him; they cried when he was sent to jail; and those among them who walked from their urban warrens, or were bussed from Navotas or Malabon got another free serving of adobo or whatever else when they trooped to his “convention” last week at Plaza Moriones. And if the Comelec first, and the Supreme Court next, declares an Erap re-run legally impermissible, will they march to the streets and encamp till kingdom come until their idol’s “rights” are recognized? Hardly, except for a few hundreds, maybe a thousand or so, of the organized “masa”. The rest, the un-organized, will need to knock in every office for a job, or with their rickety kariton’s, scavenge for what little they could sell, provenance for the night’s meal. Erap will need to pay for the rent-a-crowd, not because their loyalty is for sale, but simply because each day is always a meal away. That is why they bring their children in rallies. Maski na paano, makakain din. And the rent-a-crowd brokers charge Erap and whoever else needs a crowd, even for the “retazos”, and profit from the same, short-changing the “masa”, while over-charging Erap, who loves being fooled.

Am I being too cynical? Look at the numbers. They tell a story beyond what television touts as “involvement”.

So why does Tita Cory’s son get high numbers? Low involvement likewise. People don’t see the relevance of whoever leads to change in their existence. It will always be isang kahig, isang tuka. So their low involvement gets mesmerized by today’s fad --- yellow as color, Cory as symbol (of what, they really do not quite grasp), Kris as fashion, Noynoy as fad. Even Mar getting finally married to Korina today will excite, for a few days. Beyond all these, it is still the politics of the stomach, and come election day, the mayor or his rivals will take care of that, at least for a few days.

So how long will the fad last? Fad becomes fashion when nothing else subs for it, when better or more acceptable fad does not appear, and does not excite the lowly involved.

Why was Villar, until Noynoy got into the act, inching up in the numbers game? Because he had a tale to tell --- the once-poor boy who made good, and now wants to share his largesse with his origins, kuno. He has proof of this --- houses raffled at Wowowee, and pictures of abused OFW’s given free fare to return to the land of the benighted. All these are advertised on free TV, of course, and touted by “paid” media, Nobody scratches beneath the surface of propaganda, because of low involvement. Madaling manloko, dahil walang paki ang naloloko.

When it comes to issues that ought to be the determinants of choice, which matter first? High prices, joblessness, livelihood concerns. Everybody and his uncle shout that corruption is the cause, and the masa grasps that, but heck, from Roxas to Garcia to Macapagal, through Marcos, to Aquino and Ramos, Erap and the past nine years of Gloria, it’s been one scandal of corruption after another. So the public’s low involvement syndrome says --- pare-pareho lang ‘yan. Walang magbabago. Corruption as an issue of concern ranks only sixth or seventh in the hierarchy of people’s ken.

But our leaders are stealing us blind, and that is why government resources coming from the taxes we pay are wasted, those of us in the “high involvement” minority reason. “So, what else is new?”, the low involvement respondents say. Maski sumigaw ka ng sumigaw, corrupt din ang papalit. Kaya ang leksyon --- makibahagi ka na lang.

But we threw out leaders who were corrupt, first Marcos, then Erap, the highly involved rebut, through “people power”, they remind. So what, the lowly involved retort --- luminis ba? Hindi ba nagsipagbalik lang ang corrupt, at mas matakaw pa?

The system sucks. And changing the faces will not change the system that sucks. In truth, the lowly involved have stopped hoping. Those of them whose parents scraped enough from every meal to get them through school and now count themselves lucky enough to get a contractual job, as sales clerk in some taipan’s department store, as security guard in some mestizo’s mall --- good for the next five to six months, know the hopelessness of it all. So they help themselves, scrimping and scraping off starvation wages, so that there will be enough to pay the recruiter. Any job in some far-away place is escape from the dreadfulness of near sub-human existence. And the less lucky, those whose parents were unable to send them through school, never mind if they were diploma mills, survive by being kargadores in the wet markets, or pickpockets, or scavengers. For them, even dreams are a luxury.

Is there any candidate out there who can infuse some hope?

I always exclaim, what a country! What a country, indeed.

* * *

Just as I was ending this article, a friend sent me a short message. It is a message of hope, and so I thought of sharing it with you, instead of stabbing hopelessly into the dark.

“No matter how bad yesterday was, it now belongs to the past. Don’t let it worry you or stop you from pursuing the many possibilities of today.

“For today is a gift you can unwrap and share with all.

“That is why it is called “present”. Open God’s present with a happy heart”.

Amen to that.

Choosing a “vice” for 2010

Since Cory of Tarlac partnered with Doy of Batangas in the “snap” elections of 1986, and Marcos of Ilocos chose Tolentino of Manila in defending his kingdom, the North-South political equation was dashed. In 1992, FVR chose Lito Osmena of Cebu as his “vice” both as a return to the Luzon-Visayas balance and the fact that the latter was himself considered a “presidentiable”. Earlier, he had tried to get Chief Justice Marcelo B. Fernan, but the Cebuano jurist-politician decided to partner with Monching Mitra. Fernan was certain of winning the vice-presidency, with 53% of the voters expressing preference for him over the feuding Osmena brothers (Lito for FVR and John as Danding’s running-mate). But as fate would have it, Erap Estrada who was gunning for the presidency decided mid-way to slide down to becoming ECJ’s “vice”. The result? FVR won, ECJ lost. But Erap won. Thus we had a president from Pangasinan and a “vice” from San Juan in Metro-Manila, both from Luzon once more.

In 1998, the main protagonists were Speaker Joe de V of Pangasinan and VP Erap of Metro Manila. Joe de V eventually partnered with Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of Pampanga and Pangasinan. Not only were they from Luzon, they were from the same central plains. And Erap took Ed Angara of Baler as his “vice”.

In 2004, Gloria, the incumbent after she kicked Erap out of Malacanang in 2001, hand-picked Noli de Castro of Pola in Mindoro Oriental, a well-known broadcaster who won as senator barely three years before, as her “vice”. That was an astute move, as we have seen for the past five years. And FPJ was partnered by his handlers with Loren Legarda, herself a well-known broadcast journalist who topped the senatorial elections in 1998.

Worth noting is that although De Castro ran as an “independent” candidate for senator in 2001, he was adopted by Erap’s opposition Pwersa ng Masa as its candidate. Right after he topped that contest, he enlisted himself as part of the administration bloc and joined Manny Villar’s pro-regime Wednesday dinner club. And Loren won in 1998 as a Lakas poster girl. In the impeachment trial of 2001, she voted to open the “second envelope”, as against Erap’s eleven loyalists, and was seen on TV crying when the trial was aborted by a walk-out of the prosecution. That event triggered Edsa Dos, and Loren was clearly classified as an administration senator for the last three years of her first term. Yet, when FPJ ran, she was partnered with the legendary king of Philippine movies. Erap had forgiven her, and forgot.

In 2007, Loren decided to run once more for the Senate, thus rendering moot her protest with the Supreme Court over Noli’s election. She swore in as a member of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, and ran as part of the “Genuine Opposition” with whom she came out on top. Noli, although supportive and submissive throughout, has refused to join Lakas or Kampi, neither the newly married PaLaKa, which gave its benediction to Gilbert Teodoro as Gloria’s standard-bearer and chief apologist.

In the run-up to 2010, both Loren and Noli had been early favourites in the looming presidential derby, but as fate and fickle public opinion would have it, they are now relegated to “vice” material. Loren’s misfortune probably lies in her being a woman, not exactly a market-perfect product after 9 unbearably long years of a “hated” woman president. Noli’s lack of conviction and drive doomed his presidential prospects.

Oddly, the last man into the fray, Noynoy Aquino, whose presidential quest was serendipitously pushed by the death of his mother, President Cory after a year-long bout with cancer was the first to bag a “vice”. And so the LP, nervous because their champion, Mar Roxas had tortuously been unable to get enough voter preference in the surveys, now have a champion, and an early match-up of Noynoy and Mar. The early surveys indicate that they are the team to beat.

Erap has declared he is running, constitutional questions notwithstanding. And he has chosen his vice-president, Jojo Binay, who also happens to be the president of the UNO Coalition that was used in the 2007 elections. Earlier, he offered Binay’s slot to Chiz Escudero and Loren Legarda, and apparently both did not bite. Escudero will declare his delayed intent to gun for the top slot next week, while Loren is supposed to make an announcement on her plans today or tomorrow.

Over the past weeks though, speculation was rife that Legarda may after all not run with Escudero, and she openly admitted that she was being wooed, by several presidential candidates. She mentioned Chiz, Villar, Gibo, Erap and even Dick Gordon; later she trimmed the list to just Chiz, Villar and Gibo. Clearly she refused Gordon if the newspaper reports are accurate.

Meanwhile, Noli de Castro, after his talks with Villar which we wrote about some two weeks ago, is still waiting for whatever from Manny. Is it a go or no go? And if it’s a go, well, where’s the private show of goodwill? That somebody is allegedly brokering Loren with Manny of the most money has been grist of the rumour and text mill of late.

Now let me tell you a story: In late 1997, the extremely popular VP Erap had a problem. Elections in May 2008 was just several months away, and yet he had no “vice”. Ed Angara was available, if his LDP would coalesce with Erap’s PMP. LDP had an ample enough political infrastructure, while PMP had little. But the surveys indicated that the little lady called Gloria was making inroads, and eating into Erap’s commanding lead in the surveys. Backroom negotiators started working for both Gloria and Erap for a possible match-up. The deal being brokered was for Gloria to run as “vice” to Erap instead, and be assured of the presidential plum come 2004.

But then a fly in the ointment also appeared from out of the blue. Fred Lim captured the moribund LP, got Pres. Cory and even Cardinal Sin to anoint him. And Tita Cory persuaded Sen. Serge Osmena to partner with Lim. As I was working with Erap at the time, we got worried, not because Lim was a formidable opponent, but the possibility of him eating away from our Erap’s huge Chinoy following. An Erap-GMA tandem was a convenient marriage of two extremely popular figures, but an Erap-Edong tandem was a balanced ticket of popularity plus the LDP machinery.

When news about Edong negotiating with Fred was confirmed by LDP insiders who had by then become closet Erap supporters, we decided to stop the talks with a rather “difficult” Gloria, and went with Angara instead. In less than a week, the negotiations had been completed, and it became an Erap-Edong tandem, launched with the usual cinematic hoopla at the Folk Arts Theater. Gloria, whose campaign chest would not fill up, was left with no other option than to go for Joe de V. She won handily, but she could not help make Joe win. Two years and a few months later, she resigned as DSWD secretary, a post the victorious Erap graciously gave her. Three months after resignation, she was sworn in as “acting” president by a Supreme Court that gave legal imprimatur to a de facto coup.

What are the case lessons gleaned from these “vice” transactions? One is timing. The potential “vice” must come in at the right time, when a presidentiable is desperately looking for a partner. The price is best when the timing is right. Juxtapose this lesson of the right timing with what has happened to current Vice Noli. When his numbers were high, he did not bite. When his numbers went down, his price went down. But because someone is desperately looking (actually two), he may negotiate for higher. Parang “stock market”, or the price of real estate in Marikina.

Only in this country is the vice-president treated like “precious” commodity. Precious enough to have a “price”. Precious enough to be offered transactional bargains such as “goodwill”, or future positions for him and his assigns. Of course, the downside lies in the ability to win as a team. If the “vice” wins but is unable to win with his “president”, then obviously the post-facto arrangements will not matter. Which is why these days, the wise “vice”, if rumours are to be given credence, prefers an ample “goodwill” as against promises of “shared” glory.. Or, as in the Doy Laurel experience, even promises are not honoured. The mutiny at Edsa, it would seem, was reason enough to breach word given.

Yet in reality, while a vice-presidential candidate’s voter appeal does not necessarily transfer to his presidential team-mate, as proven in several previous elections, a presidential run is not taken seriously unless there is a “vice”. And if the “vice”, for whatever reason, logical or emotional, happens to be a “presidentiable” as well, then the cachet ups his ante. Which explains why most everyone starts a vice-presidential quest by declaring first for the presidency. The exception in the present run-up to 2010 is Ronnie Puno, who declared for the vice-presidency even before his party chose a presidential candidate.

Long lost too is the geographical equation in choosing one’s “vice”. The geographical and ethno-linguistic divide has been blurred by the pervasive dominance of media, particularly broadcast, in people’s consciousness. Add to that the growing use of special media – the internet and its myriad permutations, which brings news, even rumours, in real time. Long lost too is the principle of party loyalty. Parties in this day and age, as this space keeps repeating, have become mere flags of convenience.

So, in the next five weeks before the Comelec deadline for filing candidacies comes, expect more quick-draw and quick-buck political somersaults and many a “surprise”.

* * *

And speaking of Ronnie the Tree, how true is it that he has been chastened by the survey numbers, and now refuses to throw more money after wasting quite a pile on his vice-presidential quest? If so, who will escort Gibo in 2010 --- Ebdane? Or an import? Will wonders never cease!

The “Vice”

There is a metaphor used in the US of A to describe the office of Vice-President as “worth a pitcher of warm spit”. The uselessness of the office was ascribed to it’s being just a “waiting room” for death watch that may or may not occur. Taking off from the American presidential system, the Philippine Commonwealth had a president, Manuel Luis Quezon, and a Vice-President, Sergio Osmena Sr. The Commonwealth leadership went into exile in the United States after Japan invaded Manila, and the Japanese inaugurated a Second Philippine Republic (the First was led by Aguinaldo’s short-lived presidency). The president proclaimed by the Japanese was Jose P. Laurel of Batangas. His first vice-president was Don Benigno Aquino Sr., father of Ninoy.

By the time MacArthur “liberated” the Philippines, President Quezon had already died of complications owing to tuberculosis in Saranac Lake, New York. Sergio Osmena of Cebu was thus installed the second president of the Commonwealth, the first Philippine vice-president to succeed the presidency. But when elections were held for the presidency of the Third Republic, Manuel Roxas, the fiery orator from Capiz, defeated the self-effacing gentleman from Cebu. Roxas and his newly-formed Liberal Party chose Elpidio Quirino of Ilocos Sur, a three-term senator closely associated with Manuel Quezon. He chose Quirino over Quintin Paredes of Abra and Claro Mayo Recto of Batangas and Tayabas. Quirino became the second vice-president to succeed a president who died while yet in office.

The third “vice” to become president by succession was Carlos P. Garcia of Bohol, whom the enormously popular Ramon Magsaysay picked reluctantly as running-mate after the more well-known Arsenio H. Lacson, Mayor of Manila and native of Negros, declined his offer. A widely circulated story in political lore has the irreverent Arsenic telling off Monching Magsaysay, saying, “Malakas ka pa sa kalabaw, baka mauna pa akong mamatay sa iyo. Dito na lang ako sa Manila”. Monching died in a plane crash three years into his term, in Mt. Manunggal in Cebu. Thus did the low-key, often snubbed Garcia, the first truly dark-complexioned vice-president of the land, ascend the presidency. 1957 was an election year, and Garcia had to immediately launch his campaign for the presidency. He defeated the Liberals’ Jose Yulo of Negros, but his vice-presidential candidate, Jose B. Laurel Jr. of Batangas, son of the wartime president, was defeated by Diosdado Macapagal of Pampanga. This is where the concept of “uselessness” of the vice-president’s position came in.

Previous vice-presidents were named to the cabinet by a grateful president. In the United States, the role of presiding officer of the US Senate was automatically assigned to the elected Vice-President. It is still largely ceremonial, because real power in the US Senate lies in the hands of the Majority Floor Leader. But in the Philippine setting, the “vice” was mere person-in-waiting unless the president gave him a cabinet position. So, Quirino was Roxas’ Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and so was Garcia under Magsaysay. But Macapagal was denied any cabinet position, and used up his four years, from 1957 to 1961 going to every municipality in the country, campaigning for the presidency which he won over re-electionist Garcia. His partner was Emmanuel Pelaez of Misamis, the first vice-president from Mindanao. But Macapagal and Pelaez broke off politically after just a year because of the celebrated Harry Stonehill scandal, which tarred almost every politician in town.

Notice that almost always, the then two political parties demanded geographic balance in cobbling up a national ticket. If a presidential candidate came from Luzon, the vice-presidential candidate must come from the Visayas, or Mindanao. Even in choosing eight senatorial candidates, regional or ethnic representation was ideally pursued. In the 1965 Nacionalista Party convention, Senate President Ferdinand Marcos, earlier turning coat from the Liberal Party to challenge Macapagal, chose Fernando Lopez of Iloilo, a former vice-president under Elpidio Quirino, over Maning Pelaez. All three were candidates for presidential standard-bearer, along with Gil Puyat of Pampanga and Dominador Aytona of Bicol. The convention was a tight contest, and only in the second ballot did Marcos win, over Pelaez, and third-placer Lopez. Puyat and Aytona had withdrawn after the first ballot, and swung their support to the scion of Ilocandia. Why did Marcos choose Lopez and not Pelaez, already the incumbent vice-president?

Lopez belonged to the influential clan that owned the country’s second largest newspaper, the Manila Chronicle , and a yet new broadcasting station that was to later metamorphose into giant ABS-CBN. The younger brother of Don Fernando also controlled Meralco, which was the power-provider for Manila and its suburbs. And the family exercised great sway over the so-called “sugar bloc”, landlords who were also governors and legislators for Negros and Iloilo. Interestingly, the re-electionist Macapagal and his LP chose a young congressman, like his father a brilliant orator, Gerardo Roxas of Capiz, as running-mate. The Marcos-Lopez tandem beat Macapagal-Roxas in 1965, though Roxas felt he was cheated. He ran for senator two years after, and topped. But then, seven years later, Marcos declared martial law. The Third Republic was dead.

Caving in to pressures from the American government, Marcos called for “snap” elections. What is germane to this article is how the administration chose its “vice”, and how Cory Aquino got her running-mate. In the ranks of the KBL, speculation was rife that no less than the strongman’s wife, the powerful Imelda Romualdez-Marcos, would be pushed into running for vice-president. Marcos was sick at the time with what was then whispered to be lupus that had metastasized into kidney failure. But Marcos decided on Arturo Tolentino, the respected parliamentarian from Manila, defiant of the tradition and practice of a North-South geopolitical balance. Imelda, the political scuttlebutt then averred, “chose” Tolentino because he had little political strength to pose as challenge to her own widely-perceived ambitions of succeeding Marcos.

In the opposition camp, the choice had more drama. Salvador H. Laurel, son of the president of the Second Republic, had initiated the formation of a broad coalition of anti-Marcos elements, the United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO), in which this writer was backroom worker and deputy secretary-general. He had been proclaimed in June of 1985 as the presidential standard-bearer, should widely-anticipated “snap” elections occur. But the parliament of the streets, predecessor to what is now called “civil society”, ganged up against Doy and goaded Cory Aquino, the martyr’s widow, to run. It became increasingly clear to us who ran Doy’s backroom that Cory would run, but Doy and his traditional political advisers were in state of denial.

There is a bit of déjà vu on how Doy was deserted by his UNIDO stalwarts, the men and women who just a year and a half ago Laurel proclaimed as the “magnificent 58”, (after winning a third of the Batasang Pambansa in the 1984 elections), and how Mar Roxas looked behind and saw so few, when Noynoy Aquino decided to be the Liberal Party candidate for 2010.

Doy’s UNIDO was larger then than today’s LP. He had painstakingly put together an alliance of former Nacionalistas, Liberals, and regional parties, and the opposition then controlled a third of the Batasan. The Liberal Party today has at best a dozen congressmen in a 236-member legislature, although it has a sixth of the 23-man Senate.

But apart from being a chronicler of presidents and vice-presidents, this two-part article wants to give an inside view on how the “vice” is chosen, from the death throes of authoritarian rule to the birth of the Fifth Republic. (What is considered the Fourth Republic is actually a brief interlude between February 25, 1986 when Cory took over and the promulgation of the new Constitution in 1987, when a legal dictatorship existed, albeit with liberal and democratic practices).

Cory asked Doy to forsake his presidential quest and run instead as her vice-president. Even getting Cory to offer the vice-presidency to Doy was not easy. There was a certain personal distance between Ninoy’s widow and Ninoy’s buddies. Ninoy described Doy to me in Boston as his close confidante. They both suffered the post-war stigma of being “children of collaborators” at a time when being pro-American was a badge of honour. Both young men in the late 40’s, they suffered at being treated almost like pariah by peers and social equals, but that goaded both to redeem the tarnish to their name.

I gleaned some coldness in Cory’s face when Doy’s name was mentioned in private. It was, I am told, the same lack of warmth for Teng Puyat and Monching Mitra, Ninoy’s other buddies. All have gone into the great beyond, the last being Cory herself, in whose legacy Noynoy and the Liberals now stake their standards.

Be that as it may, my first recollection of a proposal to get Doy to be numero dos was in Tokyo, mid-November of 1985. Marcos had just declared his agreement to a “snap” contest over ABC’s Ted Koppel. Doy called me from the United States where he had been on a speaking tour, and asked me to rendezvous with him in Japan. Late that night, after dinner at Restaurant Hama in Roppongi, I got a call at my Imperial Hotel room from Lupita Aquino Kashiwahara, who was xtaying in the Akasaka district. For almost two hours, she and I debated what she proposed to be a “parallel presidency” where Doy would have great powers, as vice-president and prime minister (the 1972 Constitution promulgated under authoritarian auspices prescribed a presidentially powerful parliamentary system almost akin to the French model). I would have none of it, insisting on Doy’s experience and qualifications over Cory’s popularity.

Back in Manila, several meetings were held, day-in and day-out. A National Unification Council was formed, with then MP Cecilia Munoz Palma and former senator Soc Rodrigo as primary convenors. That led into more acrimony rather than unification. Cory had already primed Nene Pimentel of Cagayan de Oro, in case Doy would remain recalcitrant. Doy, on the other hand, had initially thought of Judy Araneta-Roxas as his vice-president, but then again, Judy had already joined Cory. Doy then primed Eva Estrada-Kalaw, Ninoy’s second cousin, as his possible “vice”.

This was when a frenzy of backroom negotiations took over the failed public unification conferences. It became family-to-family. Peping Cojuangco, Cory’s younger brother, started the talks with Doy and his older brother, Speaker Pepito. By then too, defections from Doy’s camp to Cory were made public. Parliamentarians who had won seats in the Batasan under Doy’s leadership started declaring support for Cory. Laurel saw the ground from under his feet turn loose.

After one such meeting held at the Lee Street townhouse occupied by Doy’s daughter Suzie Delgado, which was at the eastern side of the large Laurel compound along Shaw Boulevard, part of which is now owned by Manuel Villar and his wife Cynthia (the ancestral house bequeathed by President Laurel to his namesake the Speaker, once a defeated vice-presidential candidate), Doy conferred with me in his private study. “Cory and Peping are proposing a parallel presidency, similar to what Lupita told you in Tokyo”, he began. “Committed na daw ‘yung mga economic ministries --- Finance, Central Bank, etc., kay Jimmy Ongpin and his group”, he continued, and then asked me to submit that same day a list of parallel cabinet positions.

With the help of another UNIDO deputy, Ric Golpeo, I made a matrix of cabinet positions. “If they want Education, we should get Health; if they have Defense, we should have Justice or Local Governments. Since they will have Trade (as part of “economic” portfolios), then let us have Tourism; Agriculture vis-à-vis Natural Resources; Public Works vis-à-vis Transport and Communications, and so on and so forth. We left if to Doy to fill in the names, when they became victorious.

But the snag in the talks came when the matter of UNIDO as party vehicle came, not in the “particion de bienes”. Cory wanted to run as Laban; Doy insisted it had to be UNIDO, which he argued was the party under which the re-energized opposition had won in the 1984 Batasan elections and which had accredited minority party status with the Comelec. A day before the deadline for filing their certificates of candidacy, Cory and Doy agreed to run under the UNIDO. The rest is history.

But what happened to the agreement on power-sharing after Edsa Uno is altogether another issue.

Not the usual problem approaches

It’s quite refreshing to listen to young leaders posit their views on national problems. In the Synergeia Foundation-sponsored “Face to Face” encounter between the presidentiables and 100 local government leaders, which was televised live over ANC, we saw how clearly out-classed the older traditional politician, Manuel B. Villar was, by the younger crop of rising political stars --- 49-year old Noynoy Aquino, 44-year old Gilbert Teodoro, and 40-year old Chiz Escudero.

It is good that 72-year old Joseph Estrada did not appear. The contrasts would have been awful, between the young and the aging. Villar, who at 60 is not quite old, distinctly looked and sounded old in the competition. There were no bold statements, only lame pronouncements. There were no new ideas, only neither-here-nor-there platitudes from the mind and mouth of Villar.

Gibo sounded firm and resolute, if at times betraying an autocratic mindset, a macro approach that did not sound quite right to the LGU officials assembled at the AIM. Noynoy showed humility, a willingness to learn and to consult, but was rather tentative, confined to generalized statements. Chiz was refreshingly well-prepared, his knowledge of details quite amazing, his bias towards decentralizing power and resources of the national government very convincing.

What the forum underlined was the need for more such “encounters” with those who would be our next president. In their statements, the voter can glean who has enough competence and who has little. In their response and approach to problem-solving, one could discern the inner character behind the glitz of contrived propaganda. Of course the trapos would say only the ABC income levels bother about forums and debates, and the “masa” are beguiled oh so easily by paid crap masquerading as information. They underestimate the Filipino. With misery and bad governance being served to us in massive doses these days, I believe that even the lowest-educated will think and discern. Let us not insult the “masa” voter’s ability to distinguish lies from facts.

Having said that, one finds young Escudero’s approach to the recent calamities quite out-of-the-box but very sensible. Deeming it inappropriate to make a much-awaited declaration of presidential intent upon reaching his 40th birthday last Monday, the stalwart of the Nationalist People’s Coalition instead visited several towns of inundated Pangasinan last Sunday, and saw for himself the wide swath of destruction Pepeng and the Napocor-San Roque Dam wrought.

The day after his visit to the flood-devastated areas, he quickly calculated the tons of water, several billions of liters, that San Roque Dam officials released in one massive sweep in the dead of Thursday night. And I thought lawyers like Escudero are poor with numbers. But beyond measuring the liters of unwanted water, the youngest presidential candidate posited what his own party-mate, DECS Secretary Jesli Lapus, failed to see. Escudero asked government to declare a virtual “calamity pass” to all students in the flood and typhoon-devastated areas. There are but a few weeks left in the semester, he reasoned, and many of the classrooms were still in helpless disrepair. Under such physical conditions, learning is impaired. Even teachers were flood-victims too, and under such state of stress, they are not likely to teach properly. Parents need help, to clean and repair homes, or whatever is left of these. Those whose farms were devastated in the central plains of Luzon had lost their livelihood, and re-planting will be quite expensive. Young arms and energy of students would do well to help.

But Lapus twitted Escudero’s suggestion as akin to giving the youth “calamity diplomas”, insisting that learning in classrooms was paramount. Escudero earlier stated that the students had learned in two weeks of disaster more lessons in life than an entire semester of classroom work could have given them.

The young senator had more. He proposed a one-stop processing center to be immediately set up by government in the regional centers of the flood-devastated areas. For indeed, the disaster also rendered important documents lost or watered-down beyond recognition. There is little we could do to restore photographs and diplomas, or other such precious mementoes of a lifetime. But what about passports, licenses, birth and marriage certificates, land titles, tax declarations and tax receipts, the loss of which would impact on the normalcy of lives post-calamity? So Escudero proposes that DFA, NSO, LTO, LRA, and the local documenting officials make the process of reconstruction easy and facilitated. How come nobody in the executive thought of this?

There were other solutions that the senator proposed, such as condonation of real property tax debt for the certifiable victims whose properties have been destroyed, surely the least government could do to ease the pain. And as a medium-term solution, designing and building permanent evacuation sites with enough equipment and provisions for the next year, instead of perennially using classrooms as temporary shelter.

Again on the medium term, he asks that a national land use policy ought to be promulgated, with emphasis on recognizing the inevitable effects on our residential and commercial zones of climate change. His fellow NPC stalwart, Senadora Loren Legarda, has been espousing the environmental cause with a passion for years on end, but government, local as well as national, paid little heed. I remember that Orly Mercado, who was Loren’s professor in mass communications at the state university, authored legislation intended to create a national land use policy as early as the Cory Aquino days when he was a first-term senator. Nothing came out of it, because land-owners in Congress have been sitting on it for the past several congresses. I should know. I helped Sen. Orly in those days as a consultant in his legislative staff.

But Escudero goes beyond realization of the imperative of a national land use policy that would frame local zoning within proper environmental safeguards and disaster-preparedness plans. In the short-term, he is appealing to big land-owners to share some of their land, for use as permanent relocation sites for those who must now be evicted from habitat which encroach upon waterways and lakes, and whose lives will always be at peril with every typhoon or flood.

There are at least half a million families whose shanties and lean-to’s are at constant peril, along Laguna de Bay’s coastline, or Metro-Manila’s creeks and esteros. Where in God’s hands would we entrust their immediate habitat?

There are thousands of hectares around Metro Manila in nearby provinces that are either public land or private property. Indeed we should initiate the building of new townships, and the first settlers therein should be those whose lives are at constant peril. But where do we get enough land? Informal settlers can do with 50 square meters each, even less. On simple arithmetic, without considering thoroughfares and public space, only 200 families will fit in a hectare of land, assuming single-storey dwellings, more if we can build low-rise housing. And yet again, where do we get the land?

There are landowners, family or corporate, who own thousands of hectares of land, in Pampanga, Tarlac, Bulacan, Laguna, or hundreds of hectares in Rizal and Cavite. Will they share?

That Escudero’s rivals for the presidency are prominent and wealthy landowners is beyond question. Does this make his challenge laced with politics? Perhaps. Perhaps not. That Escudero owns no property other than his Quezon City digs probably makes it easier for him to appeal for the rich to share.

But surely, the suggestion is innovative and creative, and if all in this country would only imbue themselves with the Bibical precept that property and wealth is stewardship of God’s gifts, and share these with the many who have no land and little other property, then perhaps even Mother Nature would smile.

What is happening to our country?

Is the good Lord sending us a message? Two Saturdays ago, torrents of water fell from the heavens, right smack into the metropolis, and in six hours of blinding rain, thousands of homes were flooded, most beyond repair or rehabilitation. For two days, the national capital region and nearby provinces were virtually no man’s land. Rooftops looked like thousands of islets where families were marooned, waiting for succour, hungry and abandoned. As the days passed, we counted some 250 deaths. The number of those whose hopes have been slain, now looking liked dazed zombies unable to fathom what happened to their lives and unable to ponder over a future saddled with debt and uncertainty, keep growing as floodwaters have not receded in many areas. Laguna de Bay seems to have gone into reverse reclamation, with nature reclaiming the area which man had encroached upon. In the process, half a million people will soon be without habitat.

With the nation still in shock, another typhoon kept everybody in perilous death watch even as relief work was being organized. After Ondoy’s devastation, Pepeng, with center winds of almost 200 kilometers per hour, with gustiness beyond the same, threatened several parts of Luzon. Everybody heaved a sigh of relief when it’s howling winds spared Bicol, Quezon, thence Aurora and even the northernmost parts of the country. But the typhoon was not finished with the benighted land. Its winds may not have done as much, but for an entire week, it stayed within the country’s environmental theatre. And it poured far more rain in far greater areas --- all of Region 2, all of Region 1, and the Montanosa in-between. It filled our dams --- Ambuklao built by Quirino, Magat and Pantabangan built by Marcos, San Roque built by Ramos. Meter after meter of water had to be finally released else greater tragedy of unlimited tons of water destroy everything in its path. This happened Thursday night, and residents of Pangasinan, Isabela, and Nueva Ecija hardly slept as the water level kept rising, destroying their appliances and furniture, later threatening to destroy everything they had saved all their lives. One wonders why the dam management did not release the water little by little as early as two days before, and whether there was any coordination between them and Pagasa, the weather bureau. And why they had to release the water in the dead of night, when people were asleep. Meantime, in the highlands, continuous rain loosened the soil, and massive landslides snuffed out entire families in the dead of night. Another couple of hundred Filipinos died, perhaps more when the reports from other parts come in.

Meanwhile too, vegetables in the highlands meant for the tables of the lowlands are rotting, as Benguet and Aritao are marooned. Bangus in Dagupan squirmed out of their pens and washed out all human income expected from them. “Buntis na palay”, stalks heavy with soon-to-be-harvested grain, were bent, then drowned by rampaging floodwaters. An entire season of work and capital was destroyed, in what is the nation’s rice granary --- the central and northern plains of Luzon. Beyond, in the irrigated lowlands of Laguna, the same fate was repeated.

People will have to pick up the shattered pieces of washed-out lives. And they face the spectre of massive hunger and spiralling prices, going to Christmas and beyond, as the nation enters the orgy of political campaign to choose their next likely-to-fail hope for redemption. While it is true that climate change has unleashed many aberrant behaviours in Mother Nature’s weather patterns, the reality of successive quirky disasters befalling a nation already benighted by social and economic inequity, boggles the mind and discombobulates public order.

The Holy Father in the Holy See received our latest ambassadress to his papal court meantime. She was the third within his still short papacy, and within that span of time, he had heard nothing but miserable news about the only Catholic country in Asia, “only” until an equally impoverished Timor l’Este was snuggled out of the corpus of the world’s largest Islamic country.

Even the Pope could not contain his puzzlement at the stream of bad tidings that kept engulfing this country jewel of his tiara. He watched the endless diaspora of his faithful into almost all parts of the world, suffering ill effects upon families and social contracts, and even disruption of their accustomed religiosity. He heard news about unmitigated greed elevating official corruption to the level of evil science. And now he weeps at the unmitigated disasters that keep befalling his Catholic outpost in the Far East.

Through the new envoy before him, he wondered aloud why we cannot seem to be properly led by honest and morally upright leaders, as if in puzzlement as to how a nation consecrated to the Holy Mother and the Infant Jesus could be so cursed by low life masquerading as public officials. “The struggle against poverty in the Philippines calls for honesty, integrity and an unwavering fidelity to the principles of justice, especially on the part of those entrusted with positions of governance and public administration”, he lectured from his dais the veiled lady dispatched before him by the woman who once pompously said that “the Lord put me here”. Vatican officials should probably research at the origins of the wealth of the envoys the little lady has sent to them. Oh yes, they are always ladies of great wealth, but scratch a little deeper into the provenance of their possessions. Were they the result of graft-ridden commissions once purloined in a mahjong table through proximity to power? Or other unseemly sources of great wealth? Yet now, as if to redeem such inglorious and suspicious provenance, they face the holy of holies, in spiritual pretense and holy pose. It is as if Vatican II had failed to cleanse our faith of the filth of the Borgias and other medievalists who once lorded it over the Holy Church.

What is happening to the country? And for a country that year-in and year-out is visited by twenty typhoons each year, why couldn’t government have been more prepared, and its actions coordinated? Why are there no zoning plans for local government officials to religiously comply with? Why hasn’t Congress passed a national land use policy for the longest time? (I remember that a bill was presented as early as the Cory days to promulgate a national land use policy, but every vested interest in Congress slept on it). So many questions and so few answers from a government caught clueless and helpless.

Meantime the misery of victims multiply. What the mind finds immeasurable is the greater problem of repairing and rehabilitation, replanting fields destroyed, financing the reconstruction, even retrieving important documents lost to hundreds of thousands. If we as a people had been of lesser faith, our spirit and morale would be utterly broken.

Who among the presidential contenders can posit both immediate plans and long-term solutions, other than distributing relief goods wrapped in their signature colours? Is there anyone in government who can act, beyond the endless meetings, the repetitive command conferences? Why are we ever so cursed?

Tuloy na si Chiz

Nangako si Chiz Escudero nang makailang beses na hindi siya magdi-deklara para sa panguluhan hanggang hindi niya inaabot ang kanyang ika-apatnapung kaarawan. Ayon kasi sa Saligang Batas, maari lamang tumakbo ang isang Pilipino sa pagka-pangulo o bise kapag inabot na niya ang edad ng 40. At si Chiz, na ipinanganak noong Oktubre 10, 1969, ay naging 40 anyos noong Sabadong nagdaan.

Kinansela ang isang dapat sana’y pormal na deklarasyon sa Club Filipino kahapon ng gabi, dahil sa tila hindi nababagay sa panahon. Lubha ang pagkaka-salanta ng Northern at Central Luzon dala ng Bagyong Pepeng, at nangyari ito samantalang hilahod pa sa hirap ang mga biktima naman ng Bagyong Ondoy dalawang linggo pa lang ang nakakaraan. Kaya’t minabuting kanselahin ang pormal na pasinaya, at kahapon, ayon sa balita, ay nagtungo si Escudero sa Tarlac at Pangasinan upang mamigay ng mga relief goods at pagkain sa mga biktima ni Pepeng.

Subali’t wala mang pormal na deklarasyon, malinaw sa mga binitiwang interbyu kahapon na tuloy na si Chiz sa pagtakbo bilang isa sa mga kandidato ng oposisyon sa panguluhan ng bansa pitong buwan mula ngayon. At ipinakita naman niya ang kanyang kakayahang mag-isip nang mga angkop na solusyon sa mga suliranin ng bansa at hirap ng bayan. ‘Di tulad ng iba na nagkaroon nang magarang seremonya na wala namang platapormang binitiwan liban sa pangako ng maayos at malinis na pamamahala, si Chiz ay naglibot na lamang sa ilang mga istasyon ng radyo upang ilahad ang kanyang mga sadyang naiibang mga panukala ukol sa krisis ng sunud-sunod na kalamidad na dumating sa atin.

At tulad ng kadadaan lang na Synergeia forum sa AIM na televised live ng ANC, napansin ng marami na nagingibabaw ang batang Escudero sa kaalaman kontra sa kanyang mga katunggali na sina Manny Villar ng Nasyonalista at magpinsan-buong sina Noynoy Aquino ng Liberal at Gilbert Teodoro ng pangkat-GMA. Humarap sila sa isandaang mga lider ng mga local na pamahalaan, tulad nina Gobernador Jon-jon Mendoza at Loreto Ocampo ng Misamis Occidental, sina Mayor Ed Hagedorn ng Puerto Princesa, na nagnais matimbang ang tugon ng apat sa mga suliranin ng bansa. Malinaw sa sinumang nanood, anuman ang kinikilingan, na mas handa at mas nag-aaral ang batang Escudero. Umangat ang kanyang mga kategorikal at walang pasubaling mga deklarasyon, at hindi tulad ng iba na paliku-liko ang mga pinagsasabi. Medyo pumangalawa si Gilbert Teodoro, na marami ding kategorikal na pananalita, dangan nga lamang at sadyang hirap siya dahil pasan sa balikat ang bigat ng mga kapalpakan ng rehimeng Arroyo na kailangan niyang depensahan.

Mariing dineklara ni Escudero na tigilan na ang pork barrel, at imbes ay gawing line-item budgeting ang ating gastusin, para maging tunay na transparent ang mga proyektong paglalaanan ng salapi ng bayan. Mula 2005 nang pinangunahan niya ang impeachment kay GMA lalan ng iskandalong Garci, wala na siyang natanggap na pork barrel, nguni’t tumagal naman daw siya bilang congressman at senador. Si Ping Lacson nga, hindi tumatanggap ng pork barrel, nguni’t nakapagsisilbi rin sa bayan.

Sinabi niyang dapat dagdagan ang IRA para sa mga lokal na pamahalaan, na kinontra ng mga katunggali. Ang iba ay nais na lalong gawing makapangyarihan ang tanggapan ng pangulo, samantalang si Escudero ay nanindigang dapat ang palakasin ay mga lokal na namamahala, dahil sila mismo ang kaharap ng mamamayan at nakakaalam ng mga suliranin nila.

Malinaw at makabago rin ang kanyang approach sa problema ng kapayapaan sa Mindanao. Tigilan ang solo-solong pakikipag-negosyasyon, na may kaakibat pang mga dayuhang bansa. Mas dapat daw ay makipag-usap ng sinsero sa iba’t ibang tribu ng mga kapatid nating Muslim, dahil maari nga namang iba-iba ang kanilang hinaing. Hindi iisang Bangsa Moro, kundi pakikipag-negosyasyon sa mga Maguindanaw, Tausug, Maranaw, atbp.

Nguni’t lalong makikita ang kakaibang mga solusyon na isiniwalat ng batang Escudero sa mga interbyu niya kahapon patungkol sa kalamidad na dala ni Ondoy at Pepang. Malinaw sa kanyang mga solusyon na inilatag, na may “out-of-the-box” approaches si Chiz sa kanyang mga pananaw. Hindi lumang pulitika at hindi datihang mga solusyon. Dahil lubhang humaba tayo sa pitak na ito, itutuloy natin bukas ang mga kakaiba nguni’t kahanga-hangang mga pananaw ni Escudero patungkol sa pagkaka-salanta na ating dinaranas at taun-taong hinaharap.

Selling the jewels

The business section of many newspapers bannered the story recently that the Food Terminal property in Taguig City will be up for sale. One hundred twenty hectares in all, the property, minus some 17 hectares which is being used by the National Food Authority, is expected to fetch a minimum of 13 billion pesos for the Philippine government.

The usual reason given for selling off crown jewels is privatization, which as policy recognizes that the private sector is better at business than government can be. In the past, government itself pioneered in business investments, blazing trails in strategic industries where the private sector was either too timid to risk its money, or had been unable to raise the huge capital requirements thereof. But there has been a paradigm shift since the post-war policy of protectionism, and then again, after martial law, when a lot of government corporations went in the red, drawing more and more public money subsidy in order to stay afloat.

The Cory Aquino and Ramos administrations sold a lot of government-owned assets, from the Manila Hotel to Philippine National Bank, to Petron (which Marcos bought from Exxon, an American corporation), Nawasa, and many more. Of late, the Macapagal-Arroyo regime has been on a selling binge --- the transmission grid which used to be owned by Transco, which in Marcos’ time was centrally-owned and operated by Napocor, among others. The latter is also privatizing its generating plants. The policy is to privatize the entire energy assets of government, from power generation to transmission, to distribution. Meralco is the latest such sale of government holdings in power distribution. But while indeed government has been a failure in running business, principally because unfit political appointees with little vision and plenty of greed have been given charge of such lucrative GOCC’s, the question of selling real estate is something else.

The Ramos government sold one of the best located pieces of real estate in the country --- Fort Bonifacio, which used to be Fort McKinley, headquarters of the Philippine Army and the Marines, and on which is located the Libingan ng mga Bayani. The property straddles the boundaries of Makati and Taguig, as prime as prime could be, because it is right beside Manila Golf Club, behind Forbes Park and Dasmarinas, and accessible to both South Superhigway, the circumferential road that leads to Pasig and Quezon City, and barely a kilometre away from EDSA. It was a much celebrated sale, the proceeds of which were supposed to be used for the modernization of our Armed Forces. Whatever happened to the money is still a puzzlement to this day. The Armed Forces has been planning and planning, talking and talking about modernization, yet, as of last count, our air assets were confined to two C-130’s (one mostly out-of-service) and a few hand-me-down helicopters from the US of A. Why, even Typhoon Ondoy found the NDCC headed by the Defense secretary scrambling around for rubber boats to effect rescue operations.

Now there’s another hundred hectares in Taguig, adjacent to what is now called the tony “Fort”, that private land developers, giants like the Gokongwei-owned Robinson flagship, or the Ayala Corporation, perhaps Henry Sy’s SM, or maybe even the newest kid on the block which has been gobbling up whatever real estate is up for sale, Alphaland, are salivating to acquire from the cash-strapped government --- Food Terminal, Inc.

The sprawling development was one of Ferdinand Marcos’ pioneering public investments. It was envisioned as a hub for the wholesale, processing, storage and myriad requirements of produce marketing and distribution. Ostensibly, the hub would help stabilize supply of fresh and frozen produce, and the pricing thereof. A set of cold storage facilities were put up, and for a while, even frozen and canned produce processors of tuna, crabmeat, and the like, used the FTI’s modern facilities. But that was more than three decades ago. The facilities have gone to pot since, with successive post-Marcos governments giving FTI not only less than optimal utilization, but utter neglect. It has become more a business carcass than anything else. But ah, the terra firma upon which its detritus stand, is now prime real estate. And a regime that has made fiscal deficits annual state-of-the-art reality is now selling it in a frenzy.

So it will become another residential-commercial complex for the rich and the near-rich. Beside it are tenement buildings put up by Dona Gloria’s father Disodado, as poor man’s housing. If only the daughter could eject the families there from, pack them into no man’s land somewhere in Calamba or Bulacan, cared of her HUDCC head, the vice-president, so they would not “lessen” the value of the FTI sprawl, she probably would. But then, the tenements are only four storeys tall, and the rich who would buy the condominiums put up by Ayala or Sy, Gokongwei or Alphaland (reputedly owned by the newest mestizo Castila “taipan” in town), need not see these monuments to decay from their penthouse aeries. The developers will put up swanky malls in a nation where shopping malls are mistaken for progress. And so on and so forth.

But wonder why the FTI complex could not be utilized instead for its original purpose, which is to be a distribution and processing hub for produce. Imagine if fruits and vegetables could be brought here from the North via NLEX and C-5, from the South via SLEX, stored in temperature-controlled multi-level warehouses, and sold to market whole-sellers. Instead of huge cargo trucks going all the way to Divisoria or Pasay or Nepa-Q, they would disgorge their produce into neatly-segregated sections of FTI, for smaller trucks of buyers to bring into the metropolis. Less traffic, more efficiency, and likely, better prices for the end-consumers.

And imagine also if all provincial passenger buses were to disgorge their human cargo into an inter-modal transportation hub at the FTI complex. Instead of these huge buses entering Pasay and Makati, QC and Manila, they would instead unload everybody at the hub, from where the MRT could be extended, and inter-metro buses and taxis could bring them to destinations outside the hub. This should quite decongest the metropolis of its traffic bane, and result in a more orderly, more organized intra-city transportation system. All these can certainly fit into the hundred and three hectares that government now intends to sell off the FTI complex. And government could ask the private sector to efficiently run these pro-consumer, anti-traffic operations, without ever losing title to the land.

On the contrary, where will the 13 or so billion pesos from the sale of the Taguig real estate go? To service an unsustainable deficit, brought about by low-efficiency tax collection, mis-prioritized government spending, and plenty of corruption. Talk of good governance.

Optimum benefit is not in the regime’s lexicon, despite an economist for a president. Myopia is. And add greed as motivation.

What a country!

Ghosts

We rushed our article last Friday the previous morning due to a series of early meetings. The night before, a friend e-mailed us this: “Several political personalities and controversial celebrities reportedly used Twitter to express their thoughts on this latest tragedy. Here are samples of unverified posted tweets.”

I saved the very wittily written “tweets”, and on Thursday morning, while I was on a rush for a scheduled meeting, I decided to use them for my Friday, October 2 column. Little did I realize at the time that the witticisms came from “the professional heckler.wordpress.com.” I even added two or so lines to what my friend sent me.

Readers informed me about my non-attribution as early as Friday afternoon, but there was no way I could apologize in print until today. So very sorry, professional heckler, and to the blog’s many followers as well.

* * *

In the continuing probe by the Senate Committee of the Whole on Sen. Manuel Villar’s “unethical” C-5 power maneuvers, a scrutiny of the parcellary survey submitted by the DPWH yielded information that a non-existent lot was used to try to collect 78 million pesos for road right-of-way payments from government.

Lawyer Ernesto Francisco, counsel of Sen. Jamby Madrigal, noted in the last hearing that the duplicate copy presented by DPWH-NCR special investigator II, Carlos Bacolod Jr., had the inclusion of Golden Haven Memorial, Inc. property, when in the supposed original plan prepared in 2002, this was not included.

The geodetic engineer who conducted the parcellary survey, one Gil Sirjueco, was allegedly commissioned by the Villar companies, and is supposedly in possession of the copy of the missing original plan. Bacolod, it would seem, came up with a new survey that included the bottom portion of the original, which included a lot not included in the original plan. It was almost like an intercalation meant to increase the size of the property. Based however on the map prepared by NAMRIA, the official mapping agency of government, the so-called “lot” cannot be found in the alleged location.

An exasperated presiding officer, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile exclaimed, “So this is a ghost lot”.

Lawyer Ernesto Francisco, who ought to be congratulated for this sleuthing, wondered why Villar’s Golden Haven corporation is not claiming the P78 million, while it has claimed lesser amounts of 10 and 20 million, even as there is a big unpaid amount of 78 million pesos. Evidently, there must have been collusion between DPWH, BIR and the Villar corporation.
Worse, Bacolod and DPWH came up with a zonal valuation of 13,300 pesos per square meter for the Golden Haven property, which is several lots away from the C-5 road, yet a property owned by a certain Antonia Ramos right beside, was pegged at only 4,000 pesos per square meter. To try to extricate himself from the quicksand, Bacolod passed the buck to the BIR. Enrile expressed scepticism at Bacolod’s buck-passing, stating that when properties are bought by government, strict examination to ensure that public monies are not improperly paid out must be done.

“You are an agent of the government. You are a civil service employee. Your loyalty is to the Republic, so why would you allow government to pay more than double for a lot that is far from the road simply because other agencies say so? Why didn’t you ask?”, Enrile questioned the DPWH inspector.

It was also discovered during the hearing that Bacolod himself personally delivered the letter-offer to Masaito Development Corp. for a road R-O-W to its office in Makati City when the standard operating procedure is to have it delivered by mail. Masaito Properties had earlier engaged in property-swapping with Villar, at the latter’s instance, before the C-5 Road was built.
This “queer” behaviour and solicitude on the part of Bacolod should explain in future hearings why Villar and Masaito swapped properties, and what happened to the “excess” payments DPWH made.

Of course, Villar and his propagandists would say they did not press for payment on the “ghost” property. But what if he becomes president by the grace of voters duped by his slick advertising fuelled with lots and lots of money? Would the “ghost” resurrect and quietly get paid?
What other “ghosts” in other areas, such as Daang Hari, Daang Reyna, Norzagaray in Bulacan, San Pedro in Laguna, in Cavite, Cebu and Iloilo, might resurrect, and be shuffled over by DPWH, BIR, Bangko Sentral, and other agencies in an attempt to please the “bagong hari”?

* * *

In any case, the Senate is seriously considering a transfer of its session hall and offices to the nearby Manila Film Center, which was built by Imelda Romualdez Marcos for some international filmfest in the early 80’s. In the mad rush to complete the structure, a concrete floor caved in, killing scores of helpless workers.

Nonetheless, the film extravaganza went on, with actress Brooke Shields, if I remember right, gracing Imelda’s festival. Later, the centre played host to daring, not really so X-rated movies, which starred beautiful nymphets in naked glory. When Edsa One toppled the Marcoses, “ghosts” took over the abandoned building. Years after, some spirit questors communicated with “ghosts” who seemed to have inhabited the building after they were entombed by tons of concrete.

Now Senadora Miriam Defensor Santiago wants the Senate to buy the building from the Cultural Center, instead of interminably paying rent to Winston Garcia’s GSIS. The imposing structure, looking like some modern Parthenon, would be the new legislative playground, with ghosts thrown in to make their merriment more surreal.

Manny Villar, if he does not make it to the presidency come May 2010, should be at home with the “ghosts”, serving the last three years of his second term. Oh well.

* * *

So we do not end this “ghostly” piece in so ghastly enterprises, it is worth noting that the Canadian government has announced that it will fast-track the immigration processing of Philippine citizens “directly and significantly” affected by Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy to us) who would seek to relocate in their sparsely-populated country.

Of course they must comply with requirements, and those who have kin already residing in Canada would be given top priority. Some 330,000 Canadians trace their roots to these benighted shores, and Filipinos represent the country’s third largest ethnic minority.

Indeed, rather than continue to live with the “ghosts” of Ondoy’s memory, many would do well to rebuild shattered lives elsewhere. Unfortunately, to these shores would go some of our best brains.

Matagalang plano

Dalawang mahahalagang leksyon ang dapat nating matutunan matapos ang pagkakapagsalanta ng Bagyong Ondoy at ang nagmuntikanang Bagyong Pepeng.

Ang una ay ang pag-unawa na mayroong malawakang climate change na nangyayari sa ating planeta. Ibang-iba na ang mga weather patterns sa ating daigdig dala ng climate change. Sanhi naman ng climate change ang walang patumanggang pag-abuso natin kay Inang Kalikasan. Ilang saling-lahi na ng buong daigdig ang binale-wala ang balanse ng kalikasan laban sa modernong pamumuhay at materyalismo. Sobra-sobra ang pagsunog ng carbon-based fuels na sumira ng ozone layer, na siyang pangunahing sanhi ng pagbago ng klima. Sa ating lisyang paghabol sa kaunlaran at makabagong pamumuhay, nawasak ang balanse ng kalikasan sa pangangailangan ng populasyon. Kasama na rin dito ang kakulangan ng pamamahala ng pagtapon ng mga basura.

Malinaw na kailangan na ngayon ang puspusang pagsasa-ayos ng mga patakaran upang mabawasan ang carbon emissions, pagsasawata ng mga pag-abuso sa ating kalikasan, mga bagay na siyang nagpapalala ng climate change.

Ang pangalawang leksyon ay ang kakulangan ng pangmatagalang plano ng ating mga kalunsuran. Ayon sa tanyag na arkitekto at urban planner na si Jun Palafox, taong 1977 pa nang mag-sumite sila ng plano sa pamahalaan, kung saan malinaw na na-identify ang mga fault zones ng baha, maging ng lindol. Kung sinunod ang planong ito, hindi sana nagkaroon ng mga subdivision at napakaraming kabahayan sa mga mabababang lugar. Napakaraming nagsipamili ng lupa at nagpatayo ng bahay na ngayon ay nagsisisi dahil sa isang iglap ay nasira ang kanilang mga pag-aari at palagiang nasa panganib ang kanilang mga buhay.

Sana naman ay magkaroon ang pamahalaang mahahalal sa 2010 na malawak ang pananaw, na susundan ng matagalang plano para sa gamit ng lupa. Kailangan nang magkaroon ng tunay na land-use policy ang ating bansa, at nang hindi patumangga ang development. Kailangang isa-ayos ang paggamit ng lupain, ayon sa pang-saka, pang-residensyal, pang-komersyal, industriyal, maging kung para sa turismo, o para sa mga parke at open spaces. Kailangan ding magtatag ng malinaw na forest line, kung saan hindi papayagang putulin ang kakahuyan, bagkus ay taniman ang mga dating pinutulan ng puno. Gayundin kung anu-anong lupain o bulubundukin ang pwedeng pag-minahan, at nang hindi nakakaperhuwisyo ang mga ito sa pagsasaka o sa kalikasan, samantalang ginagamit ang likas na yaman.

At sana rin ay makapaghalal ng matigas at buo ang loob na liderato sa papa-abot na halalan, isang lideratong may angkop na “political will” upang ipatupad ang mga pang-matagalan na mga plano, at kayang salagin ang mga angal at oposisyon ng maraming mga sektor, upang maitaguyod ang pangmatagalang seguridad at kaayusan ng ating lipunan. Hindi maari ang mga pusong mamon, o mga nagpapadala sa panandaliang agos ng “public opinion” kung ang patuloy na pagbibigay ay makasasama sa pangmatagalang kabutihan ng mamamayan at sa maka-kalikasang plano. Wala na tayong oras na maari pang aksayahin.

Kung hindi natin isasa-tupad ang matagalang mga plano at hindi matututo sa mga leksyong dala ng trahedya ng Ondoy at mga nauna pang kalamidad, kaawa-awa hindi lang ang taong-bayan, kundi maging mga saling-lahi natin.

Twitter treats

Congress will once again throw money into a problem the clear preventive solutions to which neither the executive nor the legislature can’t seem to plan well ahead, let alone implement effectively.

From the much-abused road users’ tax, they are going to pull out ten billion pesos as an Ondoy rehabilitation fund. The senators try to look better. They are pledging one million from their 200 million pesos annual pork barrel, to share with the flood victims. That’s 22 million pesos, because there are twenty-three who avail of their allocation (assuming DBM releases to them) and one who eschews the availment.

From a reader comes this appreciative note: “Thank you….thank you…. Congress………..for donating our money, to us.”

* * *

Ah! The wonders of technology. Imagine how it would have been if we did not have cell phones? With landlines rendered useless by the floods, cellphones were the only link to media offices that immediately mobilized aid and served as message centers to whoever in government was not too stunned to effectively discharge their duties.

And the photos those cellphones took of the fast unfolding tragedy were awesome. Once uploaded into the internet, they gave us dramatic photos of the scary events brought by Ondoy and climate change.

As did using their Twitter to express thoughts as the tragedy struck. Several political personalities and controversial celebrities are parodied in these posted tweets (fictional, of course) so we would have momentary emotional relief from the anguish of last weekend and the slow move-on this week:

GMA: “Sabi n’yo knee-deep lang ang baha? It was chest-deep! Lumusong pa naman ako. Punyeta!”

Sen. Mar Roxas: “Ramdam ko kayo. Promise. Totoo na ‘yan”.

Sen. Manny Villar: “I am worried about C-5 Road”.

Sen. Noynoy Aquino: “Will have to meet with the Pink Sisters before deciding on which evacuation center to visit first”.

And Cebu congressman Tony Cuenco follows with his own tweet: “Half of the members of the lower House will join Noynoy’s planned relief drive”.

To which Gibo Teodoro says: “Hoy, pinsan, wala namang agawan ng trabaho!”

Meanwhile, Sen. Ping Lacson tweets: “God save the Philippines from Typhoon Ondoy, este, Pepeng na pala”.

But Sen. Jinggoy Estrada is unimpressed: “Baka akalo mo porke’t bumagyo, nakalimot na ako. Hindi pa tayo tyapos, Mr. Panfilo Morena Lacson. Galit pa rin si Daddy sa ‘yo”.

Bro. Mike Velarde enthuses: “Baligtarin ninyo ang inyong mga payong! Tikatik…ayyy… umaapaw na…ang baha!”


Pampanga Rep. Mike Arroyo: “My advice sa mga nawalan ng bahay at gamit is this: Pakasal kayo ulit, para may mag-regalo sa inyo. Tingnan n’yo ako, sa California pa nakabili ng bahay.”

Successor of Ka Roger Rosal: “Basang-basa dahil sa ulan at nanginginig sa sobrang lamig. Ka Joma, kung nababasa mo ito, magli-leave muna ako for two weeks”.

Vicki Belo: “Just got home after driving around the metro with Adel. Ang daming nagkalat na…plastic”.

And followed Kris Aquino: “Gosh, did you see Marikina and Cainta? I swear…kailangan niila ng make-over!”

Boy Abunda: “By Calayan…please.”

Anabelle Rama: “Haaay naku, Dong. May naga-text kanako…Kasabwat daw ni Ondoy si Wilma Galvante!”

And Senadora Loren Legarda: “What have I been saying all along? Climate change ‘yan. You’re not listening kasi, eh”.

To which Sen. Chiz Escudero suggests: “Timing kayo, ma’am. Takbo na, ma’am. Gusto mo ikaw ang presidente?”

But for broadcast celebrity Ms. Korina Sanchez: “Rain or shine…tuloy ang kasal!”

Joke, joke, joke…

Useless

Those of us who had the good fortune to be spared from the life-and-death crisis that was the killer-weekend Typhoon Ondoy brought about, and whose only annoyance was being caught up in endless traffic, or having had to suffer the inconveniences of flooded streets and brown-outs, will do well to ponder at the travails of our fellows --- friends. relatives, as well as simple kapwa-tao.

My friend Ric Golpeo, who is the executive director of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, was on his way home with wife Emma to their thirty-year old Provident Village residence. That house was built in the last years of martial law, after Ric had saved some from his years of working for the Puyat interests. They had just come from a nearby supermarket, and used to flooding in this Marikina neighbourhood, they parked their car at the entrance, which never got flooded in the three decades they had lived there.

What happened next came too fast. They didn’t even have time to walk or wade to their residence. The rush of floodwaters came too fast that they soon found themselves clambering through rooftops in the establishments fronting the Provident Village gate. They stayed atop the highest rooftop possible, along with twenty other men, women and children shocked at the awesome inland tsunami that confronted them. They were there all afternoon and all night Saturday, way past the wee hours, into Sunday morning, hungry, cold, desperate for help. Only on Sunday afternoon did they find the courage to come down, when the floodwaters had abated somewhat to chest-deep. They finally reached their house, more than 24 hours since Ondoy poured in torrents, only to find both first and second floor ceilings collapsed, and all their lifetime savings and possessions destroyed. The car in the garage was ruined, and the car they left at the entrance gate had tumbled along with others.

Ric and Emma are thankful just to be alive.

* * *

My friend Rollie Estabillo is similarly situated. His house in he Tandang Sora neighbourhood is beyond repair. Rollie has retired from communications work at the Philippine Airlines, before that a news editor of long standing and respected stature. Again, to be alive is a blessing he could only thank the Almighty no end.

Our executive editor, Joy de los Reyes, who had lost his wife to the Big C just months back, is in similar straits. And Nonie Pelayo, Weng Salvacion, Delon Porcalla, Claude Vitug, Cielo Banal, countless more colleagues in the media, suffered terribly at the hands of Mother Nature gone berserk.

Picking up the pieces of shattered lives will not be easy. Possessions saved through years and years all lost, and the more painfully expensive means to move on, to re-build, to rehabilitate, all these face them now.
* * *

My daughter’s friend is at his wit’s end. Three years back, he became a young entrepreneur, putting up a small company selling corporate give-aways. Peak season is of course Christmas, and so he had stocked up on raw materials and supplies to be assembled and packaged for his clients in time for Christmas distribution. Deep in short-term debt, to be recovered once the clients pay him probably well after Christmas day, Ondoy’s waters rendered his shop and factory useless, and all his merchandise gone or destroyed beyond utility.

How many others are similarly situated? Internet cafes with now zero value, stores with their wares beyond salvage, and picking up the pieces virtually impossible because all those pieces are gone?

* * *

Worse is the sense of frustration. The anxiety of staying in rooftops through rain and cold, and waiting interminably for rescue that never came, and now, relief so niggardly because so many have to share so little.

Let me share with you this sad story, which was sent to an FSGO member by someone trembling with disgust, seething with justified anger, at a government that simply melted from existence when crisis struck:

“Yesterday, at the height of the floods, my sister’s husband Rey, whose family lives at Provident Village in Marikina, got a call from his brother. They were at the roof of their 2-storey house --- his wife, his brother, 2 kids, his sister, and their 85-year old father who just got out of the hospital last week.

“Not wanting to rely on our USELESS government to rescue them, Rey went to Makati and scoured the stores for a motorized boat that he could buy. At around 6 pm, he finally found a store at Reposo street selling a six-seater motorboat for over 100 thousand pesos.

“Immediately after, he put the boat on his pick-up and motored as far as he could to Marikina. The nearest dry land was the Sta. Clara Church, still way too far to Provident. Suffice it to say that for somebody who was maneuvering a motor boat for the first time, Rey arrived at Provident at 12:30 a.m. When he entered the village, everyone was screaming, thinking that it was already the government’s rescue team. Rey was the first to brave Provident on a motorized boat with nothing but sheer will steering him.

“Meanwhile, our useless government was holding a press conference announcing relief operations delayed fatally because of excuse after excuse. They kept saying that they could not get through because the currents were too strong for them! HELLO! Why couldn’t they while my private citizen of a brother-in-law who does not even know how to use one before he purchased it, could?

“Rey had to turn a deaf ear to people screaming for help as he entered their village because he had his family, especially his 85-year old dad in mind. The waters were too high that he was actually holding on to the Meralco wires! He was shouting for his brother's name as he could not even locate where their house was amidst the sea of mudwater. When he finally found them, he had to hold back from breaking down as he saw his dad at the apex of their roof holding to a string of blankets just so he will not get swept by the currents!

“It took Rey 2 hours to navigate back to Sta. Clara church to drop off his dad and nephew, came back for his sister-in-law and another nephew. It was 3 a.m. by the time Rey reached Sta. Clara church again… By this time, media were there and NDCC people assisting his sister-in-law to get off the boat. Gibo Teodoro had the gall to tell media that government rescue operations are now on-going, alluding to the footage of my brother-in-law rescuing his family!!! And these stupid NDCC people were even asking Rey's sister-in-law to remove her life jacket and return to them! Hello, everything was theirs, from the boat, to the life jackets, to the sheer will and determination to keep their family alive!!!

“He wanted to keep coming back to save other neighbours but his tired body could not anymore. So he decided to take a rest at his sister's house at Valle Verde till around 9 a.m. today. Then they went back only to find how cars were piled up like
matchboxes. His brother's Patrol, Camry, and Galant were supposed to be safely parked at the village main avenue as historically this was the highest point of the village. Sadly, the cars were nowhere to be found, washed away like toy cars... but what was even worse was seeing bodies already floating around, including the body of a 3-month old baby stuck in a car windshield!

“As it was too devastating a sight for them to take already, they decided to just lend the boat for others to use to save more lives.

“Meanwhile, we see our government making all these excuses why they cannot save people faster... and we remember GMA spending 800 million pesos in contingency funds for her endless travels abroad…and Mikey Arroyo shamelessly admitting how his net worth ballooned within the few years that his family have been in power. Such shameless greed!

“I love the Philippines and I do wish for a better Philippines for my children's sake. But during times like these it makes you wish that you were living in another country where you dial 911 and help will be forthcoming.

“Rey had the presence of mind, sheer will, and financial resources to buy a boat on the spot and put matters into his own hands. But what if it were the other way around and he had to wait for our USELESS GOVERNMENT to rescue his dad? We only shudder at the thought of what would have happened to his family, especially Lolo Manny, if and when rescue finally comes --which for many less fortunate souls, until now have not (yet) come!”

Further this writer cannot comment on the above cri de coeur of a narrative.

* * *

Another friend, Art who comes from Cebu, had a simple, common-sense idea. What if Gibo flew a helicopter in the afternoon when the rains had stopped (yes, Gilbert Teodoro is a licensed pilot, just as poor boys played with paper planes, and we from the middle-class played with plastic), and simply threw “salva-vida”, or salbabida the way we pronounce them, inner tire tubes, into flooded neighborhoods, which probably cost less than 200 pesos each, instead of scrounging around for rubber dinghies and not knowing how to bring them through tangled traffic that Ronnie Puno’s police could not solve enough for military trucks to pass through (kuno)?

What if? But bunker mentality got the better of the NDCC and their president, who made a great to-do about riding in a military 6x6 to preside over a conference in Aguinaldo, and two days after, open Malacanang in silly propaganda effort to (kuno), become some kind of evacuation center for the victims of Ondoy, only to be repulsed at the numbers that lined up, numbers her pusillanimous staff could not even manage efficiently, probably because the idea was so hare-brained to begin with.

Dear God, why do you punish your people with USELESS leaders?

Pagkatapos ng relief

Sadyang nakapanlulumo ang nangyari sa Kalakhang Maynila at sa mga karatig na lalawigan noong Sabado ng umaga. Isipin na lang natin kung gaano pa kalaki ang naging trahedya kung ito’y nangyari nang gabi imbes na umaga. Sa maraming mga naka-ekspiryensya ng lagim ni Ondoy, pare-parehong namangha sa bilis ng pag-akyat ng tubig-baha. Isipin mo kung nangyari ang ganito habang natutulog ang mga pamilya, lalo na mga batang paslit at matatandang may karamdaman. Pasalamat na lang tayo sa Panginoong Diyos at araw nang mangyari ang pagsalanta ni Ondoy.

Sa ngayon ay pagbibigay ng relief, paglibing sa mga namatay, paglilinis ng mga kabahayan ang siyang inaasikaso ng lahat, para manumbalik maski na papaano sa normal na andar ng buhay. Marami ngang mga kapwa media persons ang nasalanta --- si Rollie Estabillo, si Joy de los Reyes na patnugot ng Malaya, maging ang ating patnugot na si Nick Quijano. Batay sa mga napag-alaman pa natin, sina Nonie Pelayo, Cielo Banal, Delon Porcalla, Weng Salvacion, Kaye Adraneda, at marami pa sigurong mga taga-media ang nakaranas ng lupit ni Ondoy. Sa kanila at sa kanilang mga pamilya, ang ating pakiki-isa sa panahon ng krisis na ito.

Kahapon ay nagngingitngit tayo sa kakulangan ng paghahanda ng pamahalaan, maging sa kakulangan at pagkaka-antala ng kanilang pagtugon sa maraming halos agaw-buhay sa paghihirap noong Sabado at Linggo. Magpahanggang-ngayon nga ay marami pang nadidiskubre na bangkay, at marami pang naghahanap ng mga nawawalang mahal sa buhay. Kahapon lang natin napag-alaman ang lawak ng kalamidad, at sobrang pahirap na nagawa nito. Sadya nga palang hindi kakayanin ng anumang pagkakapaghanda ang tugunan ng sapat ang trahedya. Nguni’t mas maraming naisalba sana kung may medyo sapat na paghahanda.

At matapos ang relief operations, matapos linisin ang mga kabahayan at paligid ng putik at duming kumapit, lalong mapait isipin ang matitinding epekto ng trahedyang dulot ni Ondoy.

Marami sa mga biktima ay may mga pagkaka-utang pang dapat pagbayaran --- sa Pag-ibig, sa mga bangko, sa mga instalments ng kanilang sasakyang nasira, mga appliances at iba pang gamit sa bahay. Masakit ngayon, ang gastos ng pagkukumpuni, ang gastos ng pagbili ng mga bagong kapalit sa mga pangangailangang tulad ng kutson, refrigerator, damit, at iba pa. Malaking gastusin na papasanin ng mga kaawa-awang biktima ni Ondoy.

Maganda nga ang panukala ni Sen. Chiz Escudero na isuspindi na muna ng Pag-ibig, SSS at GSIS ang pagsingil sa mga utang na hinuhulugan ng taong-bayan, at maging ang apela sa mga credit-card companies.

Isipin rin natin ang mga tubigang lumubog sa Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, at iba pang lugar. Ilang ektarya na hitik ng buntis na palay ang ngayon ay nasalanta? At ilang mga gulayan, mga babuyan, poultry, at pala-isdaan ang na-apektuhan? At ano ang magiging epekto nito sa darating na mga buwan, sa presyo at kasapatan ng pagkain?

Ilang mga negosyo ang nasira? Mga internet shops na lumubog, at sira ang lahat ng mga computer, paanong aahon ang mga maliliit na negosyante? Mga tindahang lumubog ang paninda? Mga gawaang lumubog ang mga makina na ngayon ay gugugulan ng malaki para maikumpuni? Mga supply at raw materials na nasira at hindi na maaring pakinabangan?

May kaibigan nga ang anak ko na hindi magkanda-ugaga sa laki ng suliraning idinulot ni Ondoy sa kanyang negosyo. Kararating lamang ng mga inangkat niyang mga gagawing produkto para sa Kapaskuhan, nang lumubog ang kanyang maliit na pabrika na nasa Talayan sa QC. Limas ang lahat ng mga ito, maging ang tinitirhan nilang mag-anak sa ikalawang palapag. Ilan pang mga Pinoy ang nasalanta ng ganito? Sumaisip nga sa akin ang Marikina, kung saan maraming gawaan ng sapatos at pananamit --- paano na sila ngayon.

Tinataya ng NDCC ang dalawang bilyung piso raw na pinsala na dulot ng baha. Sa ating konting pananaw, baka ilang daang bilyon ang tunay na pinsala --- sa mga sirang kagamitan, mga aanihin na napariwara, sa mga trabahong mawawala kung kailan pa naman paparating ang Kapaskuhan, sa mga gastusing dumoble, tumiriple at higit pa, sa mga negosyong naunsyami at mahihirapang makabangon agad-agad.

Sobra-sobra ang trahedyang dulot ni Ondoy, na buwan at taon bago natin mapanumbalik sa normal ang buhay ng mga naging biktima. Maawa ka naman, Panginoong Diyos.

Weekend jokers

Because I write articles three times a week here and twice a week for Abante, my writing chores end on Thursday when I file my Friday article. My weekend really begins Friday and ends Sunday. I normally write my Tuesday column either on Monday morning or Sunday afternoon. This was partly written on Friday afternoon, as I had planned to be out-of-town from Saturday.

A lot of jokes happened over this past weekend. The biggest joke, cruel at that, happened all day Saturday, well past the wee hours of Sunday. For many, even beyond Sunday morning. But that’s for the last part of this article.

* * *

Tony Cuenco, the gentleman from Cebu City’s southern district by the grace of Tommy Osmena’s consistent support until the last election, announced a “survey” he did of his fellows in the lower house. Who is their sentimental favourite for the presidency, asked Tony? Whether he did it by open or secret balloting, or whether he had face-to-face interviews as SWS and Pulse Asia claim of their methodology, Tony does not explain. Sentiments he polled, because if we go by their pocketbooks at the moment, everyone would croak like a PaLaKa.

And what did Tony claim his survey conclude? About a hundred representa-thieves are for Noynoy, claimed Cuenco. Of the other half, Manny Villar comes next, followed by Gibo Teodoro, then Chiz Escudero, and Erap last, his “informal survey” found out. Clearly, Tony’s “impressions”, as he himself puts it, are a joke.

He got the SWS Mega-Manila findings of Noynoy’s 51% and juxtaposes it on his own colleagues. Then he mentions Manny and Chiz, gives a sprinkling for Erap, but decides, like the party “faithful” he claims to be, that Gibo has suddenly jumped from 0.2 to the big leagues. It’s not extrapolation; it’s not arithmetic; it’s just a joke. Tony wants to ride on the Noynoy fever, that’s all.

What surprises is that media gave it due attention. Why, a broadsheet even bannered the story, as if the editors, let alone the writer, do not understand the science of polling. Of course, Tony’s sentiments are likely their sentiments as well. They publish Cuenco’s “impressions” to impress “facts” upon the unsuspecting. Propaganda, not straight news reporting.

* * *

Tony Cuenco himself is torn between his “utang na loob” to the Aquino family, principally the late President Cory, and his “loyalty” (kuno) to the PaLaKa, who has proclaimed another Cojuangco it’s standard-bearer. This looks more like riding on Cory, and riding on Noynoy, than anything else. Tony is no longer hunky-dory with Tommy Osmena, and since this is his last term as congressman, after finishing a previous three-term round, he knows not where to go.

Tell you what, Tony --- why not just retire? It’s been a long time. Haven’t your constituents tired of you anyway? In any case, please stop passing off your jokes as statistical data. Why, even Mitos Magsaysay of Zambales, the province of Jun Ebdane who seems to have tapped Garci to make him “president” next year, claims you forgot to ask her. How could you do that to a lady, Tony?

* * *

But here’s another joke: Silvestre Bello III, cabinet secretary of Dona Gloria, after saying his sentiments are also for Noynoy, now denies it, and says he was misquoted. “Are they doubting my loyalty to the President?”, asks Bello, who hopes to be senator of the realm.

But here’s where the guffaw comes --- “They know that I love the President very much, and we love each other.” (Oh my God! What will El Esposo say about this?”) Then Bello adds, “In the cabinet, we love one another. Even Secretary Romulo (who earlier confessed his sentiments for Noynoy), we still love him”. Ang dami mo namang mahal, Bebot. No wonder my friend from Davao, Luigi Santos, your father-in-law once upon a time, cannot forgive you.

* * *

And the following day, Kiko Pangilinan gets on the act. Even in the Senate, there are administration senators who are jumping ship because they are for Noynoy, the senator who would-be Noynoy’s vice-president (sana!) until Mar Roxas decided to beat him to it, exclaimed. Dadalawampu’t tatlo lang naman kayo diyan, Kiko, bakit hindi mo pa sabihin kung sinu-sino?

At least Cuenco can claim faulty arithmetic, and in his time at college, statistics was not yet a required subject. But Kiko? Twenty-three and you have to keep it a “secret”? Or is it because, like Tony, you’re also into “impressions”?

I recall when boss Jake Macasaet had a TB talk show in 1998. He invited a newly-appointed secretary in Erap’s cabinet? “So tell us your plans for your department”, Jake asked. “Secret!”, the cabinet member coyly answered. Boy, was Jake speechless.

“Secret”, Kiko now talks of closet Noynoy supporters in their Senate. The gentleman from Pampanga, Diliman and Pasay is fast becoming a joke.

* * *

There is a saying --- “amor con amor se paga”. Love is repaid with love. But in this rotten polity, amor se paga con dinero, mucho dinero. And the problem of the congressmen as well as the cabinet members of Bello’s kind is that Noynoy does not have the dinero (yet) with which to repay their “love”.

Noynoy and Chiz probably do not believe that “amor con amor se paga” as far as balimbings are concerned.

Which really means that as far as trapos are concerned, it’s really a run for the money, the mucho dinero of Manny Villar, unless their Dona cracks the barrel of public money to support Gibo, or is it Ebdane? These jokes.

* * *

But the biggest, and most cruel joke --- was really on us. And we heard, saw, felt, experienced it last Saturday. After incessant downpour brought by Ondoy, we realized that government in this benighted land hardly exists.

Oh, it exists in voluble press statements. It’s great when it comes to propaganda, though it uses the queerest and most unintelligible propagandists. Part of their communication strategy, I guess. You know, send in the clowns.

When disaster struck, and everyone needed government’s presence, we all realized there was hardly any. They’ve been playing a joke all these years on us all. Of course the scope of the calamity was overwhelming, but that does not mitigate a most underwhelming response.

Imagine scrambling around for rubber boats, and having a dozen or so, and being paralyzed from morning till night to do anything to save people left to suffer and die and cry on their rooftops? Saksakan ba naman ng mahal yung mga p…i… rubber boats na iyon at naghahagilap tayo kapag kailangan? And to think that just months ago, Gibo Teodoro launched an infomercial touting his NDCC’s disaster preparedness! Remember what T-E-O-D-O-R-O was supposed to mean, as crafted by a most uncreative talent manager turned creative director? Maybe even his principal can no longer recall that corny joke of an infomercial.

In the afternoon of the public ordeal, there were even radio reporters wondering why we could not run to the US of A for those goddamn inflatables with outboard motors. Hey guys, are you so jurassic you thought the military bases were still around? (For those who yet remember, now is the time to wish those f…g bases were still around.)

Flood-prone Marikina could have kept on stockpile a hundred bamboo rafts in their flood-prone barangays, primitive perhaps, but useful nonetheless for neighbourhood streets turned into grand canals. And rubber boats in their riverbanks. But to leave thousands stranded on rooftops well into the wee hours of the following morning unattended, that is rank negligence. In the afternoon when the rains had somewhat abated, where were the presidential choppers and even Hueys to try to help bring those inflatables or whatever else to Marikina, to QC, to Cainta, to all over the benighted metropolis sunk by tons of rain?

And all you got was a joke of a president playing-out crocodilian concern, showing “hands-on” propaganda at five in the afternoon. And a disaster manager who is all talk and hardly any preparedness when actual disaster struck.

Only the navy and the army were around to try with excruciatingly few resources at hand --- to save lives, and too late in the day because the police were hardly visible to do something about a traffic nightmare left to the elements to fester, and frayed nerves to discombobulate. Well into the night, and well into the wee hours, there was hardly even a traffic aide to somehow bring some kind of f…g order in our f…g streets.

* * *

Let the military take over governance in these benighted parts. Yes Virginia, I mean it. Replace this useless civilian government. The junior officers and their men; not some of their fat and fattened generals. These young officers are about the only people left in government with enough sense of duty, with enough discipline, with some patriotism left in their hearts.

Everyone else is campaigning, or stealing, or both.

Jokers, playing jokes on us all, and charging us humongous fees by way of taxes at that --- to watch, listen and experience their god-awful joke called governance.

Coitus interruptus

Even as they have found a champion to bear their colours in next year’s elections, it is clear that PaLaKa, otherwise known as the Lakas-Kampi-CMD “Party”, is heading towards legal shoals that will mean they cannot officially bed with each other.

Lakas founding fathers Fidel Valdez Ramos and Jose de Venecia are questioning the marriage officiated by no less than Dona Gloria at the Manila Hotel some two months back. Ramos rejected the proferred position of Chair Emeritus of PaLaKa, preferring to retain the title only insofar as Lakas-CMD is concerned. Joe de V went to the Comelec to question the political copulation of the “party of thieves” as Teddy Boy Locsin calls it, and the “party of the immoderately greedy” as everyone and his uncle describes Kampi.

Even Sen. Migs Zubiri is in a quandary. There were supposed to be regional consultations, but these were simply done away with because well, the Dona wanted everything rushed. What for, she herself is silent about. In any case, before her, Ronnie Puno and Ed Ermita, Political Adviser Gabby Claudio simply proclaimed PaLaKa, and eased out Migs Zubiri to become himself the secretary-general of the newly “merged” party.

Thereafter, the “anointed”, Gilbert Cojuangco Teodoro, proudly took his oath as the newest member of the PaLaKa. At about the same time, Joe de V was questioning before the Comelec the official persona of PaLaKa.

Claudio finds De Venecia’s petition queer. “We have always been open in discussing matters with them. We talked about the merger for two years and we never received objections from them”, he declared.

The answer ought to be obvious, except that to preserve some façade of unity, especially with FVR, who, aside from being a former president, has some international cachet, PaLaKa cannot “yet” afford to displease him frontally. So Claudio blames JDV, whose disenchantment with Dona Gloria started with some botched particion de bienes in Shenzhen that his son Joey could not stomach. Dona Gloria y sus hijos engineered JDV’s fall from the speakership, so now he is throwing a legal monkey wrench on PaLaKa.

If Comelec agrees with Claudio, Joe de V will go to the Supreme Court. So by November 30, there will yet be no PaLaKa to register candidates with.

But not to worry, Ronnie the Tree, putative vice-president of the republic under Gibo or whoever, says. If they (Comelec) do not bless the marriage, then guess what will remain, he asks with an impish smile. “Nagdilang-anghel ka”, Ronnie told the mediaman who asked the question. “Kampi” of course. And that’s headed by Ronnie the Tree.

But wait! Ed Ermita, who is an original Lakas, probably knows that Kampi will have to be the flag of convenience, but won’t necessarily bow to Ronnie the Tree. Publicly he muses about Ate Vi, her comprovinciano by affinity, the incumbent governor of Batangas, as Gibo’s Vice-president. He, he, he. Two birds with one shot from Ermita’s tirador --- Gov. Vi teams up with Gibo, thereby dislodging poor Ronnie, and Ermita gets his daughter, graduating Rep. Eileen Ermita-Buhain, to become the new governess of their huge province.

Never mind if Lakas can no longer bed with Kampi. If coitus is interrupted, there’s always onanism. So G-i-b-o, playfully defined as Gloria’s Interest Before Others, will be the presidential candidate of Kampi, and Ronnie his veep. The National Security Team. They might as well draft Jovito Palparan into their senatorial team. If he wins, he would make a “strong” Senate President. And isn’t Hermogenes Esperon running for congressman to represent my friend Conrad Estrella’s district? Best choice for Speaker of the House under the National Security Team. After all, Ate Vi, who would have softened the team somewhat, will not bite.

* * *

But what’s this about another Hermogenes, Ebdane with the “Jun”? This space was first in writing some two months back that he would be the latest addition to the list of presidentialities. Nobody believed me then. Was I joking?

Well, the joke is now upon us. Indeed, Jun Ebdane wants to be president of the benighted land. He is the “Tamang Daan” in 2010, or so his cute print ads proclaim. Now who’s bright idea is this? Is this an FVR play? After all, Ebdane was FVR’s close-in, one whose loyalty is treasured by Tabako.

So under what flag will Ebdane run? Why Lakas, of course --- the disjointed half of PaLaKa. With whose blessings? FVR? Or is this also a Glory-be play, just to discombobulate the political situation eight months before elections?

But what about Joe de V? He has shacked up with Manny Villar long before. He wants the “renegade” Lakas, otherwise known as the ageing “origs” to coalesce with the Nacionalista Party, and lend elder trapo influence to the young trapos of Villar. That should be fun.

One wonders whereof Jun Ebdane dreams. His program? “Sesementuhin ko lahat ng mukha niyo!” His handlers? Why, there’s always Virgilio Garcillano, who resides in Subic most of the time, watching over its customs examiners. Then he periodically sashays into Baungon in Bukidnon, to oversee his farm, and hold conferences with his loyal platoon of Comelec operators.

How will Garci operate the PCOS of Venezuela? Like the “transformer”, he will just mutate himself into a thousand pieces, maybe more, and embed himself in the software, in the memory cards.

* * *

I tell you. All these candidates are just red herrings. There are still some tricks up the Dona’s sleeves. It’s really funny, how the marriage of convenience between Lakas and Kampi is disintegrating even without copulation. Akala mo naman may difference between 0.2 and 1%, between Gibo’s numbers and Ronnie’s in the VP race. Or between 0.2 and zero, which is where Jun Ebdane must be at this point in time. Remove the potential of a thousand or ten thousand Garcis, there’s no way Gibo-Ronnie or Gibo-Vi even, or Jun-Ronnie and even Jun-Vi could possibly win the public’s affection.

Like the bored opera watcher always says, “it ain’t over till the fat lady sings”, and in the benighted land, she ain’t so fat, she’s tiny and cute, but she certainly won’t sing, not just yet.

A visit to Boy Mancao

In the middle of March, 2006, accompanied by a daughter and my then year-old grandson, I flew to the US of A to visit my family. Two of my kids (whose mom is an American citizen by choice) were studying in the West Coast at the time. I had planned on spending three weeks there, planning to drive to my favourite haunts in Carmel and Monterey with the kids, also to Napa, Sonoma and the rest of California wine country. Three weeks of pure relaxation.

I met up with a close friend who had transferred to San Francisco since a year back, and while we were having lunch in a very good Vietnamese restaurant somewhere near the Golden Gate Park, he called up Cezar Mancao, whom we call “Boy”. Cezar and this friend were together in Mindanao during the 2001 senatorial campaign of Panfilo Lacson, the PNP chief who decided in the first week of February, just days before the deadline, that he would run to become a member of the Senate.

Boy asked me to come to Florida. “Pasyalan mo naman kami dito, Sir, makita mo naman ang southern Florida”, said Mancao. The last time I was in Miami and went diving in the Keys was in 1982. Sometime in 1988, with my kids still in grade school and one a toddler even, the whole family flew from Virginia to Orlando, visiting Disneyland and the Epcot Center. It’s been a long time indeed, and in the cold, rainy spring of 2006, a visit to sunny, tropical Florida would be a nice respite.

We took a midnight flight from San Francisco and arrived at Fort Lauderdale at about seven in the morning, Eastern time. Mancao welcomed us, and immediately drove us to the Grand Palms Golf Club and Spa in Pembroke Pines where I was to stay. After leaving our bags, we then went to his house somewhere in Broward County, just about a five-minute drive away. He lived in an exclusive, gated village, and his house, a six-room affair, was nice, with a small swimming pool at the backyard to boot. Apart from his van, there were two other cars in the garage.

His kids and a brother-in-law were around, while wife Maricar, a medical doctor, was on duty at a nearby hospital. As I was staying just for two days, Boy immediately brought us to Miami, some forty minutes or so away. I noticed how much Miami had changed, with so many towering apartment-hotels facing the bay that arched around South Beach. We soaked in the sights and sounds of the place, transferring from one art deco bar to another well into the morning of the following day. Boy Mancao was the perfect host. On the way back, we even had a police escort from Miami to Pembroke Pines. The police escort turned out to be a West Miami police officer from Asingan in Pangasinan, a kabaleyan and former aide of FVR himself who even brought us cups of strong Cuban coffee. Wow! Pinasiklaban pa ako ni Boy Mancao ng police escort complete with wang-wang.

That morning, when he fetched me at the golf club, and over a cup of morning coffee, I asked Mancao in the presence of our common friend about the Dacer-Corbito double murder. (In the campaign of 2001, when Lacson was running for senator, the vehicle of Dacer was found in a ravine somewhere in Indang, Cavite. This was followed by severe propaganda against my candidate, complete with Senate committee hearings called by Joker Arroyo, if memory serves me right. I watched helplessly by as the survey ratings of Ping fell. In the early innings, he was in the top six, and I thought that with his brilliant feats as PNP Chief, where he turned around the negative image of the police institution, that campaign would be a cinch. But with the incessant barrage of negative propaganda fuelled by money from Malacanang and directed by a cabal of Gloria and Mike loyalists, his ratings slipped fast.)

“Ano ba talaga ang kwento nung Dacer-Corbito?”, I asked Cezar in his own dining room. Without any hesitation, his voice composed and his eyes straight at mine, Boy Mancao stated, “Sir, wala kaming kinalaman ni 71 (that’s Ping’s code monicker) doon. Totoong-totoo, sir.”

“E sino?”, I pressed. Boy this time could not answer. No longer did he look me straight in the eye. He was pensive, looked down at the table, and mumbled, “Ewan, sir. Mahirap namang mag-speculate…”

I looked at our friend, whose facial expression told me I should press no further. He changed the subject matter, and we talked about business opportunities in the Florida area. Mancao had been an instant success as real estate businessman. He struck “gold” when in the wake of a a strong hurricane that hit the Gulf, several houses were levelled out. Then a real estate broker, Cezar suddenly saw his business boom. With quick wits, engaging salesmanship and lots of daring, he bought a lot of real estate, repaired and refurbished these, and re-sold at higher prices. He parlayed one successful deal after another. He was active in Fil-Am community affairs, and even wanted me to have dinner with a state congressman whom he had become chummy with. Boy Mancao had hit the big-time, by Fil-Am standards.

As I was rushing back to California the following day, we capped my visit with a relaxed lunch at a veranda fronting the long beach of Fort Lauderdale, a favourite retirement haven, the marina of which was packed full of plush and swanky yachts. Cezar’s wife Maricar and his kids joined us, and together, they brought me back to the airport for an afternoon flight. I arrived home late into the night, when I received a text message from our paper’s Che Francisco about my article. I could only rush an article about my Florida sojourn about midnight, Pacific time. I e-mailed it without a title, such that boss Pocholo Romualdez simply entitled the piece, “Peripatetic writer”, probably because it read like a travelogue.

But since 2007, when the property market soured, Mancao’s fortunes also fell into bad times. And it became worse in 2008. Sometime last year, he himself called me, and with sad voice, said he was into financial difficulties. Meanwhile, Michael Ray Aquino was imprisoned due to alleged collusion with Leandro Aragoncillo’s admitted spying into US government files regarding his motherland, the Philippines. Finally, along with Glenn Dumlao whom I have not had the privilege of personally knowing, an extradition request was filed by the Philippine government for the three, all on account of the Dacer-Corbito murder trial.

Mancao and Dumlao went into solitary confinement, leg-irons and all. It must have been an excruciating ordeal, and I feel bad for them, especially my friend Boy Mancao. His cousins are even our neighbours in Butuan.

Dumlao has spoken his heart out, and it was shown on television. Senator Lacson excerpted some of his statements in his second privilege speech on Erap and his son Jinggoy.

Mancao has testified in court, and is now under cross-examination. One of his lawyers, as irrepressible but much more irresponsible than former DOJ Secretary Raul Gonzalez, yaks in and out of the courtroom peddling his own scenarios and conjured scripts. I have had my own experiences with this lawyer and one of his hapless clients who should have known better than hire a braggadocio with more air than brains in his cranium.

Aquino is still in a jail in New York (or New Jersey), freed from doing time for the Aragoncillo spy case, but now contesting the extradition request of the Philippine government in connection with the Dacer-Corbito murders.

I feel sympathy for both Ping Lacson, whose career and reputation have been tarnished by the twists and turns of the government’s persecutory handling of the case, instead of assiduously ferreting out the truth, so that justice may finally be done to the Dacer and Corbito families.

I also feel sympathy for President Estrada, who now finds himself stewing in the revelations of Dumlao and Mancao, and the speeches of Lacson.

But, as lawyers have been taught in law school, “fiat justitiae, ruat coeli”. Let justice be done, though the heavens fall.

Though the heavens fall.

This government’s Sandiganbayan convicted Joseph Ejercito Estrada for the crime of plunder. This same government pardoned him immediately thereafter, rendering nugatory all the volumes of evidence, documentary and testimonial, that the celebrated trial adduced. Ibaon na lang sa limot, in the hope perhaps that all the political turbulence (with lives lost in Edsa Tres) that convulsed this benighted land for years and years on end, would likewise disappear with political forgiveness.

But bad governance on the part of this regime has covered up for Joseph Ejercito Estrada’s own record of poor governance. Governance that was alright in the full light of day, but became bad in the darkness of night and the wee hours of each morning. Many of us in that government came in with bright hopes, with political capital unmatched since the days of Cory, and ended up disillusioned at the waste of so much goodwill, simply because a weak president could not transcend the habits built through a lifetime of irresponsible hedonism. We agonized through those last days, searching our own souls for our own “reason to believe” any further, any more. Ask Mar Roxas, a decent man who along with many, many more decent persons, served under the Estrada presidency.

Did Joseph Ejercito Estrada order the summary killings of Salvador Dacer and Emmanuel Corbito? And if so, what could have been the motive? Was it “blackmailing him on the BW stock mess”, where he and his friend Dante Tan were accused of insider trading, as Glenn Dumlao stated before a television camera? Was it because Bubby Dacer was found purloining sensitive information from his client Estrada and sharing the same with his friends, FVR and his Joe Almonte? Whatever for? Assuming that indeed, as Dumlao now confesses, the crime was masterminded in the bowels of Malacanang. And assuming further, that Boy Mancao is telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but.

Because he applied for presidential pardon from a leader whose own record of governance pales in comparison to all predecessors, bar none, and got it, Joseph Ejercito Estrada, sans remorse and sans admission, now wants to inflict his self-proclaimed “visions for the poor” upon the benighted land once more.

Maawa ka naman sa bayan, Erap. Tama na. Ipaubaya mo na sa susunod na saling-lahi. Huwag lang kay Jinggoy.

Red herring

The herring (hareng in French cuisine) is a favourite among people who live in the countries beside the North Sea. Pickled herring is a delicacy among the Dutch as much as Scandinavians, and there are as many country variations of the recipe.

Smoking fish and brine-salting were done in the 14th and 15th century to preserve it, much like our tinapa and tuyo. Now herring when cured, turns red. Fugitives hunted by the king’s soldiers would use “red” herrings to throw the soldier’s bloodhounds off the scent. If a herring was dragged across a trail that the hounds were following, it throws them off direction. Thus was born the metaphor of the “red herring”.

A red herring is something that is used to divert attention from the real intent. It is an issue subterfuge, throwing the news hounds off the scent of the real news, the real issue.

Over bottles of beer last Thursday evening, friends asked why the PaLaKa decided to field a Gibo-Ronnie tandem for 2010. Not that they thought BF would have been a better flag-carrier for their frog-green colours which Gibo relishes, his high of 1% compared to 0.2% of the former notwithstanding. But why didn’t the Dona inveigle Noli de Castro, whose numbers were infinitely higher than Gilbert Teodoro’s, they wondered?

Of course, we are told that Noli did not bite, or tarried too long such that when he wanted to bite, the herring was already devoured by Gibo. But then again, up until the Dona met Obama in DC, her political acolytes were pushing every possible legislative tactic to prolong her term by amending the Constitution. No time to make Noli feel there would be elections anyhow, nor time to assure him the baton of her “legacy” would pass on to him..

But likely too, I submit, a Gibo-Ronnie ticket is a red herring. The Dona has two other options in mind. One is rather “out-of-the-box”, and will require a thoroughly-bought and lapdog-loyal military to effect, that is, to cause a failure of elections and use the ensuing chaos to proclaim an emergency situation with the Dona still on top, as commander-in-chief and transition autocrat.

Some time ago, I merely listed the names and positions of the favoured Class of 78 in this space, and described their “familial” relations with their adopted classmate, La Donna, misma. Immediately thereafter, rumours about an “August Moon” plot surfaced, printed by another paper. That’s how credible GMA and her cohorts are.

The other is “in-the-box”, by trapo practice and the Dona’s character. And that is, transact, if it has not yet been struck, a “deal” with Manny Villar of the Nacionalista Party.

Gibo is thus, merely a red herring, to throw us all off the scent. We would be deluded into thinking genuine contest and genuine elections are in the offing, while the Dona just traipses all over the world, no longer savouring fine cusine (kuno) comme Le Cirque (though room service at the Park Lane Intercon can be just as expensive), while the ultimate in her longevity strategies are neatly playing out. One day we just might wake up to the reality of her “evil” designs.

Or, conventional but wicked nonetheless, she pulls all the strings to make Villar “win”, with financial contributions from cronies and relatives to augment Villar’s already deep pockets, and ensure that he is able to buy everyone and everything that needs to be purchased, and utilize a thousand Garci’s through the Venezuelan automated formula. But this gambit would require that Villar is a close enough Numero Dos to Noynoy or Chiz in the official campaign that unreels on February 8. And then he becomes the Venezuelan candidate, by the grace of Gloria and perhaps with the nihil obstat of Hugo Chavez?

* * *

With Mar finally accepting to be Noynoy’s vice-president, the Liberal Party is “kasado”, in gambling bettors’ lingo. And with the NPC expected to finally announce their Chiz-Loren tandem, it will also be “kasado”.

Funny, but it is Manny with the “mostest” in money who is finding it problematic to come up with a VP. He was the first to announce his candidacy. His numbers in the surveys are enviable, the result of hundreds of millions, perhaps close to a cool billion thus far, spent in commercial advertising. He has his own money to burn, and he is burning a lot.

After Chiz Escudero cut him off with a curt rejection two weeks back, he has sounded off Pia Cayetano, but the lady senator won’t do it, not even for the love of her brother Alan Peter. Vice-President Noli has categorically announced, on a “friendly” TV channel, that he will not be his friend Manny’s vice-presidential candidate.

Manny Villar has himself mentioned Jinggoy Estrada (“magaling iyan”, said the NP owner), but then the latter’s daddy, former President Erap, is still declaring that he will run for president himself, otra vez, con mucho gusto. So where does that put Jinggoy? Maybe Erap himself would join Manny as vice-president? He solves his probable disqualification that way, and tests his “vindication” dream.

Manny-Jamby perhaps? Unthinkable. Manny-Ping? Even more unthinkable. Manny-Jojo? Doesn’t seem like Jojo will bite. Why not Manny-Adel (Tamano)? Perfect geographical balance. Demographically, an “ageing” Villar side-by-side with Noynoy, Gibo and Chiz (from young enough to young still to youngest) could be complemented by Tamano, assuming he will be forty by May of 2010, of course.

* * *

Not a red herring, but foul-smelling “bulok” is how former SEC chair Perfecto “Jun” Yasay, tried to ride on the expose of Ping Lacson on the supposedly forcible manner with which Mark Jimenez brokered the sale of PLDT and PTIC holdings owned by Alfonso Yuchengo, Tony Boy Cojuangco, and Antonio Meer, to Manny Pangilinan’s Indonesian-controlled Salim Group, now Metro-Pacific.

Yasay tried to put himself in the “picture” (is Jun thinking of an umpteenth senatorial run?), by alleging that Jimenez got a broker’s commission of 3 billion pesos, which the Erap-proclaimed “corporate genius” divvied up evenly between Erap, then executive secretary Ronnie Zamora, and himself. Angered, Erap reportedly demanded that “Jimenez give up his 1 billion share, and around half of Zamora’s.”

Yasay’s tale is too fantastic and too tall. Nobody pulls, or even attempts to pull that kind of “fast one” on Erap. Certainly not Ronny, who sounded cocksure and even aloof before “ordinary mortals” like his fellows in Malacanang and palace reporters, but would almost always be terrified at Estrada’s ever-suspicious character.

Mark Jimenez, the whispers in the stinking palace at the time went, was invested with the title of “corporate genius” by a grateful president because he delivered whatever his gifts were, in full. Walang dagdag, certainly walang bawas. At walang singit, walang balato, except if the balato came from the cappo di tutti cappi’s generosity, mismo. And Ronny was not the type to get balato from Erap.

* * *

How often did we see DOF Secretary Ed Espiritu in the stinking palace during the days of President Erap? Once a week, sometimes twice, certainly not as often as then custom deputy Nelson Tan, eventually BOC Collector, who reported almost daily to the president. And Customs is under DOF, right? Call that hands-on monitoring of customs collections.

DPWH Secretary Gregorio Vigilar would be in Malacanang for cabinet meetings, which President Erap left to Ronny Zamora to preside, and during inspection trips to the provinces. But why was Region IV DPWH regional head Panganiban reporting almost daily in the palace?

When Ed Angara-recomendee, Dr. Felipe Estrella was the health secretary, who would report DOH matters to Pres. Erap, but Estrella’s undersecretary, Dr. Suzy Pineda-Mercado?

All this talk about exclusively talking only to cabinet-level officials is selective balderdash. It is partly true and partly false, depending on the president’s “interest” in certain departments, and the level of confidence he had in some cabinet members, or lack of the same. Ask the long-suffering-in-silence Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Ramon “Eki” Cardenas whereof I write.

I was there almost every day. I would report to the PTA office along T.M.Kalaw at eight, then leave for the palace by three; stay at the Political Affairs office in the Borloloy annex for two hours or less, depending on the paperwork. Then stay in the presidential residence cum office from five till nine, or sometimes beyond. Ronny and I would start getting fidgety when the President was in an expansive mood after dinner, looking at our watches, for the witching hour might commence when the “celestials” descend upon the palace grounds. That’s when the other “cabinet”, the midnight shift, takes over.

Exception to this daily routine was Monday of each week. Upon our instance, we would meet with the President for a news planning conference at eight and have breakfast with him. The first few breakfasts started at eight. In less than a month, Ronny Z, Rod Reyes, Jerry Barican, Jim Policarpio, and I, plus some quondam additions to the breakfast circle, would have to break our fast by ourselves, because the president was not yet up and about.

On one such day in November 1999, the president joined us at half past nine. Ronny reminded him that Ping Lacson was supposed to be sworn-in as PNP chief, and was already waiting in the anteroom of Heroes Hall. The president did not seem all that eager to swear him in, finally breaking our meeting at almost twelve, which was when Lacson was told that he would finally be sworn in.

In last week’s privilege speech, Lacson told the people the story behind his on-again, off-again appointment as PNP chief. Haaaaay … jueteng!

* * *

Jinggoy labels Ping as an “ingrato”, for telling the nation long pent-up experiences that demonstrate the character and competence of his father, the “Ama ng Masa”.

It is a cultural trait that we Filipinos hold dear and sacred. But “utang na loob” becomes cultural aberration when we close our eyes and shut up our mouths forever, even if the future of nation and people are at stake. “Omerta” or the Mafiosi code of silence is antithetical to the national interest. It is criminal to uphold a personal debt of gratitude over and above country.

Early days or bandwagon?

The week began with startling political news. Noynoy Aquino, who announced his intentions to run for the highest post in the land September 9, has zoomed up spectacularly in the first measurement of popularity done in the month of September.

The surveys, in fact were done in haste (not that haste makes its results suspect). When it was clear in the last days of August that the Liberal Party seemed to be hedging its bets on Mar Roxas, some businessmen wanted to test the so-called public clamor for Noynoy. And the earliest SWS could do a test was the first week-end of September. The territorial scope would also be delimited to what political tacticians call the Mega-Manila area, or more aptly, the Lingayen to Lucena corridor. This vote-rich, urbanized community, whose population is reached almost completely by audio and visual broadcast media, and has access to print media, mostly tabloids, constitutes roughly 40% of the entire voting base of the country. Mindanao and the Visayas put together is about 41-42%. The Bicol Region is about 6 to 7%, the Ilocano-speaking regions 1, 2 and CAR is about 11%, and the Mimaropa island provinces about 2-3%.

Now let me share something about the sampling practices in the country. When a polling outfit tests voter preferences, the limited sample size (1,200 or 1,800 respondents randomly selected) also limits territorial specificity. So, when the research says Visayas is for Villar at one time, and Mar another time, it matters which provinces they polled. For some strange reason, Villar leads over Mar in Iloilo, even if Capiz is just an aswang flight away (joke, joke, joke) and Chiz is a favourite in Waray-speaking provinces. But if Cebu or Bohol are polled, expect Noli to be high, because in these areas, there is high residual popularity for GMA.

But in the instantly-commissioned SWS survey, what was being tested was voter preferences on September 5 and 6, among 1,200 sample respondents, broken down as follows: NCR, 300; Pangasinan, 100, Region 3, 400, and Region 4-A, 400. Given a two-day field research, it is reasonable to assume that not all provinces in Regions 3 and 4-A were sampled. But the fact that results in NCR, Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog came out statistically similar, it is also reasonable to assume that the September 5-6 survey was just a snapshot of that period, and cannot be used to project either a trend, least of all a bandwagon.

Now what was happening during that week-end of September 5-6? Mar Roxas withdrew on the evening of September 1, asking Noynoy to champion the standards of the Liberal Party to which they both belong. The media lapped up the “selflessness” the “sacrifice”, and so on and so forth, particularly ABS-CBN, whose owners have a peculiar proximity to Mar and an almost familial affinity with Noynoy. And since it has been established that television is the most important medium for political and other messages, Noynoy’s acceptance, while foregone a conclusion, was milked of all it’s suspenseful theatrics.

Remember too that the death of Tita Cory, and the hundreds of thousands, millions even when you count the nationwide outpouring of grief and affection, created an outpouring of sympathy for her political heirs, Noynoy and Kris. Since Kris is not qualified at 38, the unico hijo, Noynoy, became the cynosure of political affections, most especially in the Mega-Manila area, almost every household in which has television access.

Note also that the survey leaders, also statistically tied in June, by SWS prognostications likewise, are still statistically tied --- Villar, Erap and Chiz. The trio had late June numbers of 21, 19, and 18. Then Tita Cory died August 1, and was buried August 5, an hour-to-hour television fare that enthralled an entire nation in deep sympathy. Then this September 5-6 snapshot, which naturally captured the emotional tug of Tita Cory’s death and all its pathos, upon which was juxtaposed, so fresh into the consciousness of the voter, the events beginning August 21, when Noynoy made “pahiwatig”, the Liberals and quondam support groups making a clamor, climaxed by the evening of September 1, at the Club Filipino, when Mar Roxas showed far more class than anyone in his grand old party. The anticipation over Noynoy’s announcement, already a done deal, was top of mind and deep in the heart of the voting population.

It is reasonable to see that when the field researchers went to work, no real voter discernment had yet taken place, and even those who were undecided, instantly expressed a preference for Ninoy and Cory’s son and political heir.

Thus, the results of the Mega-Manila survey showed Villar at 14, Estrada at 13, and Escudero at 12, all in a statistical tie, or should we say, bind, versus the humongous 50% of Noynoy. NCR gave Noynoy 50%, Central Luzon 49%, Pangasinan 48%, AND Southern Tagalog 51%.

Can it sustain is the question of the day. It will not. The fifty percent will taper down, and even in the next regular SWS round, the field work for which will be this week, or the Pulse Asia testing, the field work for which will be in mid-October, the corrections between instant surge of emotion and a certain level of voter discernment, should be markedly visible.

But in terms of being a quantum boost for the Noynoy campaign, the results of the instant SWS survey will be remarkable. Campaign financing should now flow in. I would be surprised if Noynoy’s war chest hasn’t yet received a couple of hundred million bucks within this week alone.

This should not faze Villar, who has deep pockets, the provenance of which will be a major campaign issue. It may faze Escudero, whose father, while being the agriculture minister of Marcos and then again FVR’s second-half agriculture secretary, did not feather his nest. The young candidate has to rely on contributions from many --- small or big, to fuel his thus far cost-efficient campaign (No ads and little pre-campaign activity, yet tying up with Villar and the omni-present Erap is a feat indeed). If the young man has the grit, he just has to weather Typhoon Noynoy, and pursue his dreams nonetheless.

Another remarkable finding in the instant SWS survey is the present “pull” of a Noynoy presidency vis-à-vis his matched vice-president. Noynoy-Mar scores 51% instant approval, as does a Noynoy-Chiz, at 49%, even a Noynoy-Kiko, considerably diminished at 43%. Clearly, Noynoy pulls, and is impervious to any push, or drag, from whoever his vice-president may be. But, in the rather unlikely scenario that Noynoy is paired with Jinggoy Estrada, the emotional tug is broken by some level of discernment. It slides down to 33% for a Noynoy-Jinggoy tandem, and an Escudero-Legarda goes up several notches to 20, from Escudero’s 12%.

This betrays precisely my thesis and many others, that this may be just a snapshot of voter emotions, and does not indicate how the voter on May 10, 2010, let alone when the Comelec deadline fires on November 30, or the campaign’s starting gun fires on February 8, 2010.

It’s early days. Nobody needs to blink. Not Villar with all his money. Not Escudero with all his derring-do. Not even Gibo, the newly-proclaimed standard bearer of the PaLaKa, who has eight months yet to improve a 0.2% per Pulse Asia’s reading of August, to 30% come May 10 next year, the minimum that I suspect will be required to make itr as the next president of the Philippines.

Come November 30, it will be Gibo for PaLaKa; Villar for the business-as-usual NP’s, both candidates representing the same trapo mold. And for the hopefully new wave of change, depending on how their message is crafted and is resonated, Noynoy and Chiz. Take your pick from among these four.

If there are any others, they are what we may call, “saling-ket”.

Dust begins to settle

On the 16th day of the 9th month of the Gregorian calendar, which is the 28th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar, also known as the “Kwi Ge” or ghost month, Gilbert Teodoro was “chosen” by the PaLaKa Executive Committee as their standard-bearer for 2010.

(For the benefit of those who do not know the significance that the Chinese place on the Kwi Ge, know this: No Chinese family moves to a house, nor a businessman open a store or an office, or ink a major contract or agreement, during the Kwi Ge, when ghosts roam the land. No announcements of major significance, no career changes are made, or bad luck steps in if ghosts attach themselves to house, office or career. And this year, the 7th month began August 20 and ends today, September 18. That’s when the moon cakes are given around, thanking the gods for passing through a dreadful month.

The lapdogs were all there, many of them secretly consorting in small dinner or drinking parlours with the henchmen of Manny Villar, deal struck, but conditions of timing for their “switch” stretchable, depending on how DBM’s purse strings loosen up on the basis of Gabby Claudio’s attendance record. The Nacionalistas, of course, did their own attendance check, and immediately followed up on their “sleepers” inside PaLaKa.

“Akala ko ba may usapan na tayo?”, asks the gatekeeper of the NP purse.

“Boss, alam mo naman, hihintayin ko lang yung last tranche ng DBM, at saka, may pina-follow-up pa akong project…”, answers the “sleeper” congressman sheepishly.

Poor Gilbert. He poses for a picture with his caboodle of trapos, smoke-stained pearlies showing in wide grins, thinking that these un-worthies will give him their “command” votes come May 2010. Maybe. But that’s going to cost him several millions per district. And there’s no delivery guarantee. In Philippine politics, “word of honor” is, to paraphrase Andrew Jackson “worth a pitcher of warm spit”.

No wonder his braintrust, my friend Atty. Nelson Victorino, who was with me in Malacanang in the old days of old Erap, looked sullen. In his honest mind, he knows these hallelujah chorus croak better than they could ever sing.

* * *

Noli knows. Which is why, unlike the hapless Bayani, he did not even bother to attend the PaLaKa “pakulo”. Street-smart, this Noli.

Now, Villar must be upping the “ante”, as he desperately needs a running-mate. Over the week-end, Senadora Pia pleaded with her brother Alan’s political boss, “talagang hindi pwede”. Pia is happy where she is, as senadora competing with La Loren for gowns with the mostest, and business suits that look smarter, certainly better than Jamby’s, or La Miriam’s. The Pulse Asia polls place her at the top three, never going down, and all she has to do is bike, bike, and bike. Jamby has to “burn her kilay” trying to pin down Alan’s boss on the C-5 crime of the century (well, almost, because other land and road deals have yet to see the light of daytime exposure. Yet Pia outdistances Jamby in the polls, as she does Miriam and her motor-mouthed diatribes against whoever takes her fancy.

So Villar is out, shopping once more. If Noli does not bite the bigger and bigger and more luscious “apple pie” Villar is offering, then maybe Jinggoy will bite.

But Noli, apart from being street-smart, also values his “face”. Hindi naman lahat pera-pera, and as a newscaster with his ears on the ground, the quiet life of one who did not “sell” is a consummation much to be desired after an amazing political life of “swerti”.

It ain’t so pretty, but it ain’t so bad, if you appreciate the metaphor of “face” versus “pera”.. Better to retire in a lovely Dasmarinas garden, and sip cognac (no, not Emperador brandy) in a portico-ed lanai every now and then with bosom pals like Ted Failon, or neighbours like Manong Johnny. Surely Joker would supply a bottle of Hennessy XO and bring it from his manse in the same exclusively rich area.

* * *

My friend Bayan, who no matter how controversial he is to guys like Tunying Taberna and Gerry Baja, my friends as well, I have always admired for his grit and determination, now sulks.

A month or so ago, he confided that he has a good chance of getting the “Lakas” nomination.
Since I don’t kick people when they are down, especially an admired friend like Bayan, all I could mumble on the phone was “So?”

Ever the loyal Lakas member, he thought that among the PaLaKa, loyalty pays. How naïve of him. Even in exclusive Catholic schools, students pay for the “loyalty medal” after years and years of paying humongous tuition fees. In PaLaKa, there are only two rules that matter --- the colour of money, or the order of the Dona, which also translates into money, care of the DBM, its SARO and NCO.

Left out in the cold, rejected by party-mates he thought were gentlemen and gentle ladies who view political party as an institution and not a mere flag of convenience, paper flag at that, Bayan should introspect. He and Marides do not deserve predatory company.

* * *

Gibo is impressive though. In an interview with my good friend Ricky Carandang the night of his “victory”, he stated that the stench of Dona Gloria will wash off, and the anti-Gloria sentiments will wear off as election day nears, when people will be more interested in what’s in it for them and their future (or words to that effect). That’s true, theoretically. But politics is not theory, no matter how many times one reads Machiavelli or Savonarola or even the memoirs of Cardinal Richelieu. Politics is the art of war --- Sun Tzu, where no holds are barred, and all weapons are bared.

Is that the reason why Dona Gloria wisely left in the wee hours of the morning, for Istanbul? Maybe the Turks will introduce her to their latest national “treasure”, Sultan Kosen, at 8’1”, the world’s tallest man. And while her PaLaKa were busy stabbing Bayan and nominating her anointed, Gibo back in Manila, she was contemplating the jewels of the Topkapi and the magnificence of Aya Sofya? Was she counting in her mathematically-trained mind if she could afford such digs, and where in this planet she could possibly re-create the sinful luxuries of the Ottoman rulers?

Of course, if she can make her anointed Gibo win, she just might be able to traipse freely in the capitals of Europe and gambol in the cities of Latin America, while her fabuloso esposo soaks in ever-so-familiar Vegas and Vancouver and his favourite city by the bay. As Gibo in Ricky’s show said, “it is time we stop the politics of vengeance”,

Well said, Atty. Gilbert Teodoro. But as you well know, a president must distinguish between justice and vengeance. As an officer of the court, you swore to uphold truth and defend justice, to uphold the laws of the land, and give justice to our long-suffering people.

* * *

The dust begins to settle. The realities of politics are beginning to dawn upon us all. As my Bulakena lola would say, “tumitining na”.

Once more, we will have four major candidates come November 30 --- Gibo and Ronnie the Tree for Lakas, or Kampi (choose which, because Comelec and even the Supreme Court may not be able to give legal imprimatur to PaLaKa); Noynoy and Mar (yes Virginia, he has accepted, in pectore) for the LP; Villar and maybe Jinggoy for the Nacionalistas; and Chiz or Loren for the Nationalist People’s Coalition (they were supposed to announce something in a press conference last September 23, but this was postponed while studying the legal implications of the latest SC split decision on an issue of premature campaigning).

Four for the road. It’s actually refreshing to see three young men (Chiz, Gibo and Noynoy) debating with an older man (Villar) who would not talk. And pretty Loren with newly-betrothed Mar tangling with the likes of older Ronnie the Tree and bariatrically re-engineered Jinggoy.
Unless the Dona, after contemplating the treasures of the Topkapi, has other tricks up her sleeves, learned in situ in the capital of Byzantine intrigue during the medieval ages.

Geographics; Demographics

One of the unfortunate effects of the death of a genuine party system in our polity is the inability to maintain geographic balance in the selection of our top leaders. While this may seem like the country and its disparate ethnic groups are uniting towards a single center, the reality is that the periphery is drifting farther from the center. Imperial Manila has never been as self-centered, and the peripheral countryside has never been more disaffected.

Since Cory Aquino of Tarlac joined up with Doy Laurel of Batangas, versus the Ilocano Marcos and Manileno Tolentino tandem for the snap elections, geographical balance, always a fixture in our leadership tandems during the two-party dominated political system prior to martial law, has never again returned.

Baler’s Quezon partnered with Cebu’s Osmena during the Commonwealth. Manuel Roxas of Capiz chose Elpidio Quirino of Ilocos Sur when they were elected in 1945 to head the nascent Third Republic. Quirino of Luzon chose Fernando Lopez of Iloilo to be his vice-president, as did Ramon Magsaysay after him with Bohol’s Carlos P. Garcia. The Boholano succeeded the presidency after a plane crash in Cebu snuffed out Magsaysay’s popular presidency. And while the Nacionalista Party chose to balance Garcia with Pepito Laurel of Batangas in the elections of 1957, the latter lost to Diosdado Macapagal of Pampanga. When Macapagal won against a re-electionist Garcia in 1961, he brought with him to the vice-presidency Emmanuel Pelaez, the first Mindanaoan to become the country’s second highest leader. The Macapagal-Gerry Roxas tandem of the Liberals lost to the Nacionalista turncoat, Ferdinand Marcos in 1965, who carried his vice-president, come-backing Fernando Lopez of Iloilo to the vice-presidency. And when Marcos ran for re-election in 1969, he once more partnered with Lopez, whose family soon disengaged with Marcos over business concerns. For the next 14 years, Marcos ruled as singular authority, without a vice-president.

The Cory Constitution ratified in 1987 prescribed, quite foolishly and recklessly, a multi-party system to a presidential form of government. The incongruity has destroyed the political party system, and debased the institution as no more than a flag of convenience formed to fuel personal leadership ambitions. The Unido and Laban coalitions of Cory and Doy transmogrified into splinter parties called the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, Lakas, PDP-Laban, Nacionalista, Nationalist People’s Coalition, the resurgent Liberal Party, and even Imelda’s dusted-off Kilusang Bagong Lipunan. Miriam Defensor Santiago hastily organized the People’s Reform Party for her magnificent, though failed run for the presidency in 1992. And then Senator Estrada put up his Partido ng Masang Pilipino, which eventually coalesced when the realities of logistics forced Erap to scale down his political ambitions to become vice-president to Danding Cojuangco in the NPC.

Thus, in 1992, we had Pangasinan’s FVR for president and San Juan, Metro Manila’s Erap as his vice-president. In 1998, Erap won, and so did Pampanga’s Gloria, who ran under Lakas. After usurping Erap’s presidency, Gloria nominated Teofisto Guingona of Guimaras and Butuan as transition vice-president. Soon enough, they drifted apart, and in 2004 when she stood for election, she hand-picked the present Numero Dos, Noli de Castro of Pola in Mindoro.

Luzon has dominated even the Senate. There have been fewer and fewer Mindanaoans and Visayans elected to that “august” club, because regional balance, assured through political party conventions prior to martial law, has become no more than a national popularity contest based upon the tales of the opinion surveys. This, even if Mindanao comprises 22% of the total national vote, and the Visayas 20%. Thus, popularity has substituted for peer evaluation of competence, character, track record and party loyalty. Now we have a surfeit of dolts in the Senate--- popular celebrities, but dolts nonetheless. Legislation has suffered, and the Senate as the hall of the august has become a debauchery of public trust.

As we enter another critical electoral exercise, critical because we are under an incumbent who has survived all kinds of political upheaval by sheer grit and accompanying transactions, we are faced once again with a Luzon-centric choice of leaders and tandems.

Manuel Villar of Las Pinas will partner with Pia Cayetano of Pateros as the Nacionalista tandem. Las Pinas is a stone’s throw away from Pateros, divided from each other only by Taguig and the C-5 road of Villar’s affections. If he fails to convince Pia, who is a shoo-in for re-election as senator, he might try to buy Erap’s endorsement by getting Jinggoy Estrada, also of Metro Manila, as his veep. Jinggoy seems to relish the thought. Bagay sila.

Gilbert Teodoro of Kampi, Dona Gloria’s champion, will likely have Ronnie Puno of Pampanga as his vice-president. Teodoro comes from Tarlac, separated from Puno’s province only by a lahar-silted river spanned by the Bamban bridge. If Puno falls from the race, maybe Teodoro could choose between Leyte’s Martin Romualdez or Surigao’s Prospero Pichay. That would be a laugh, but at least there is geographical balance. Bayani Fernando of Marikina will not, as he keeps saying, accept a vice-presidential slot.

If Erap persists, will Makati’s Jojo Binay run as his vice-president? The Abalos principality of Mandaluyong is all that separates tiny San Juan from ultra-rich Makati. Oh well.

The Liberals have announced a tandem of pedigreed political and economic royals --- Noynoy of Pampango-speaking Tarlac, and Mar Roxas of Ilonggo-speaking Capiz. The last time there was such a tandem, in 1965, the Macapagal-Roxas team lost to Marcos-Lopez. Pampangueno’s and Ilonggo’s do not make a lucky ticket, or so it seems. In any case, I really predict that Mar will not bite, and he will stand for re-election as senator, where he will easily breeze to another Numero Uno spot. So, who will partner with Noynoy? If the Liberals giddily feel that Noynoy will bring their party to victory on the coat-tails of Ninoy and Cory’s memory, then likely, Kiko Pangilinan will be Noynoy’s ka-tiket. That’s an all-Pampango tandem, after a long-running Dona Gloria --- de Pampanga tambien.

If Chiz Escudero of Sorsogon is eventually fielded by the NPC, he will partner with Loren Legarda of Malabon and Antique, Baguio and Laguna, who resides in Makati. Now while Bicol is part of Luzon, it is as politically disaffected from Imperial Manila as the Visayas and Mindanao. In a manner of speaking, Bicol is as peripheral to Metro Manila as Caraga or Waray Visayas is.

As far as demographics are concerned, Escudero represents the most numerous age group --- the physically young beyond being young at heart and in mind. Chiz, who will turn 40 on October 10 this year, could be the country’s youngest president ever, save only for the First Republic’s Emilio Aguinaldo. An Escudero-Legarda tandem will definitely be youthful, and good-looking at that. Though Loren is 48, she looks quite young, and Ma’am, I do not flatter nor pander.

Gibo is still young at 45, even if the “age” of Gloria’s political longevity will certainly bear down on him. His likely veep, Ronnie Puno, is as old as Gloria y su esposo fabuloso, as he is their trusted factotum. Gibo may be physically young, but young at heart and in mind, through no fault of his, he can never credibly pass off. Gibo will represent the sordid past of Gloria’s baggage, while Chiz and Noynoy could represent the future.

Erap is past --- in age, in mind, in heart. At 73, he will be supported by Makati’s twice-graduated mayor, Jojo, who though physically fit, is 66 years old. Now if Jojo does not run as Erap’s VP, and re-joins the “yellow army”, who will Erap partner with? Manong Ernie Maceda? In any case, Erap’s quest is doomed. He should take a hint from the sad plight of the Star Cinema crew which filmed him and Ai-Ai, along with Donya Dionesia Pacquiao in Gen San. They boarded the Aboitiz-owned Superferry 9, which sank off Zamboanga del Norte. One of the Star Cinema photographers died, and his name was Fernando Estrada, nicknamed Ronnie. Ill-fated, star-crossed, that is what his comeback movie has become. Is there a message of sorts?

Noynoy and Mar are about the same age, 50 and 52 respectively by the time they campaign. They do not look as young as Chiz and Loren, but they might be able to present a choice of the future, provided they stop talking in the past tense, as if the only be-all and end-all of their leadership quest is to remember Cory Aquino. But because I suspect that Roxas will not stand for the vice-presidency, then a Noynoy-Kiko team, while farthest from being geographically balanced, will be demographically similar.

Villar at 60 is not too old, and Pia in her early forties presents a good-enough photo opportunity. But Villar represents the bad old politics of transaction and abuse of privilege, and his “young” crew of spokesmen, because he does not know how to speak for himself --- Gilbert and Adel and Alan and whoever else, are all scions of that politics of old. Villar-Jinggoy? Sana nga.

And if you look at the latest Pulse Asia list of likely senatorial winners, again you see geographic imbalance. Estrada, Pia, Jamby, Bong Revilla, Recto, Binay, Dick Gordon, Biazon the son, even 85-year old JPE are all from Luzon. Come-backing Frank Drilon as well as Mar of course, are from Region 6. NPC’s Ace Durano and Tito Sotto, through his paternal ancestry, are from Cebu. Ted Failon, if he runs at all, would be the only Waray. Mindanao will have TG Guingona of Bukidnon, Neric Acosta of the same province, Ompong Plaza of Caraga, and Adel Tamano, the non-Maranao speaking full-blooded Muslim. If Grace Poe and Toots Ople decide to run, and I hope they do, they will also be from Luzon, though Grace’ mother, the graceful Susan Roces, is half-Negrense.

Of course, geographic balance and demographics are not all too significant in a country where the primordial question in 2010 will be --- who among those who would presume to lead us, possess the competence and character to lead us out of the pits of despair to which a full decade of transactional politics and institutional destruction has brought us into? Who could inspire this nation of various tribes to rise above its weaknesses and its aimlessness, and reach for the stars?

The answer will lie in their message of hope, and the trust the people will repose in their ability to deliver on their message of hope.

Ang pagbalik ni Erap

Ang pagbalik ni Erap sa eksenang pulitikal, bilang kandidatong muli sa panguluhan ng bansa, ay matagal nang itinatanghal. Para siyang “re-run” o segunda-manong palabas ng pelikula.

Mula nang ma-convict ng Sandiganbayan sa kasong pandarambong, na kaagad na sinundan ng isang “pardon” o pagpapatawad ni Donya Gloria, nagsimula nang tumakbo ang “Pagbabalik ni Erap”.

Mula rin noong siya ay bigyan ng “pardon” ni Donya Gloria, hindi na ako nakipagkita pa sa kanya, o nakipag-usap sa kanya, liban na lamang sa iilang okasyong sosyal kung saan kamayan lang o kagyat na batian lamang ang nangyari. Matatandaang naging opisyal ako ng pamahalaang Estrada, bilang Philippine Tourism Authority General Manager na may ranggong pangalawang kalihim, at alinsabay pa noon, ay Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs, na may ranggong kalihim ng gabinete. Nagpapasalamat ako kay Pangulong Erap sa pambihirang pagkakataong kanyang ibinigay sa akin bilang lingkod-bayan, na may dalawang matataas na posisyon.

Subali’t ako ay nagbitiw sa kanyang pamahalaan noong Nobyembre 3, 2000, matapos ang isang pagtatalo sa Malakanyang noong hapon ng Nobyembre 2, kung saan nagbitiw si noon ay Kalihim Mar Roxas ng DTI. Bago ang okasyong iyon, matagal kaming nag-uusap ni Mar ukol sa aming mga pangamba sa katatagan, at higit sa roon, sa “moral ascendancy” ng aming pangulo. Mahirap kasing magsilbi, o patuloy na magsilbi sa isang taong alam mong may lamat na ang tiwala ng bayan, lalo na at kumbinsido kami na sa isyu ng “jueteng” ay malinaw na sangkot ang pangulo.

Gayunpaman, noong gabi ng Nobyembre 3, matapos na matanggap na ng Malakanyang ang aking liham ng pagbibitiw, nagkaroon ako ng kaba sa dibdib ukol sa magiging kapalit, ang pangalawang pangulo na si Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Nagkausap kami sa telepono noong gabing iyon, at nagkaroon ako ng pangamba na tila kapos sa sinseridad ang pangalawang pangulo na nauna nang nagbitiw sa gabinete ni Erap, bilang kalihim ng DSWD.

Sa pamamagitan ng anak na si JV Ejercito, na ngayon ay alkalde ng San Juan, nag-usap kami ni Pangulong Erap nung sumunod na linggo, para naman maging maayos an gaming paghihiwalay. Sinundan iyon ng isa pang mahabang pag-uusap sa kanyang bahay sa Polk St., North Greenhills, kung saan nangako si Pangulong Erap na malampasan niya lamang ang impeachment, ay sadyang magbabago na siya at maninilbihan ng buong tapat sa bayan. Iwawaksi na raw niya ang tinagurian noong “midnight cabinet”. Dahil nga sa hindi buo ang tiwala ko sa hahalili sa kanya bilang constitutional successor, sinabi kong hindi ako sasama sa hanay ng mga nais siyang pagbitiwin o patalsikin, at imbes ay tutulungan ko siyang makaraos sa krisis. Subali’t hindi ko tinanggap ang kanyang alok na magbalik sa mga pwesto ko sa pamahalaan.

Noong mga taong sumunod, ako’y patuloy na tumutulong sa kanya, maski na noong nasa Veteran’s Hospital siya, at matapos ay sa kanyang bakasyunan sa Tanay, kung saan patuloy ang kanyang sumisilbing “house arrest”. Samantala, sa pamamagitan ng mga emisaryo, nagkaroon ng mga alok ang pamahalaang Arroyo na ako’y sumama sa kanila. Nguni’t tuloy akong nanulat, at tuloy na tumulong, sa pakikibaka ng oposisyon.

Nagkaroon ng lamat ang aming samahan ni Pangulong Erap nung tigas-ulo kong sinamahan si Ping Lacson bilang kandidato sa panguluhan noong 2004, bagama’t kanyang inendorso ang kaibigang si Ronnie Poe, na nahikayat nilang tumakbong pangulo sa paniniwalang tanging siya lamang ang maaring tumalo kay GMA.

Bakit hindi ako nakisama sa malaking agos na tumutulak noon kay FPJ, at bakit pinagmatigasan ko ang suporta kay Ping? (Itutuloy bukas)

Because we do not persist for truth

This week or next, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee will release its findings and recommendations on the highly anomalous ZTE-NBN deal. We shall all compare that with the Ombudsman’s decision to prosecute only Romulo Neri and Benjamin Abalos, and leave the masterminds scot-free.

Jun Lozada, the reluctant witness forced by circumstances to reveal what he knew about the deal that was negotiated in the golf links of Wack-Wack and Shenzhen and forged in Hainan in the wee hours of the morning, like “a thief in the night”, does not believe Gordon’s tale will be the truth, nor will it seek the whole truth and nothing but…

Put on the hot seat along with Joey de Venecia the original whistleblower of the sordid deal last week, by the senator from Olongapo, Pampanga, Marikina and the distant US of A in the final hearing called to “summarize” and erase whatever cobwebs of doubt there were in Gordon’s mind, Jun Lozada has come to the conclusion that the Blue Ribbon report will not be in aid of ferreting out that truth.

And so, Lozada has come out with ten questions for the public to think about, and hopefully insist on the truth, and nothing but…

First, “If not because of GMA and FG, why would the Office of the Executive Secretary order DENR Secretary Lito Atienza to make me leave (in the last days of January, 2008)?”

Second, “If not because of GMA and FG, why would the Presidential Security Group (PSG) and (NAIA Assistant GM) Angel Atutubo abduct me at the airport?”

Third, “If not because of GMA and FG, why would DENR Secretary Atienza phone me and tell me therein that he would first speak to Ma’am and ES (clearly GMA is Ma’am and ES is Ermita)?”

Fourth, “If not because of GMA and FG, why would Bureau of Immigration records state to this day that I have NOT yet returned to the Philippines?” (Because Lozada was quickly spirited out of the airport into the waiting vehicles of the PSG, his passport was never stamped with an entry stamp; it never passed the BID counter).

Fifth, “if not because of GMA and FG, why would former PNP Chief Avelino Razon (who hopes to be the next mayor of poor Manila, btw), say that he did not know where I was, when (in truth and in fact), the police already had me in their custody (inside the DLSU Greenhills compound) for two days?”

Sixth, “if not because of GMA and FG, why would Mike Defensor come to tell me that “I was already hurting Ma’am” (Dona Gloria, who else)?

Seventh, “if not because of GMA and FG, why would (then Deputy Executive Secretary) Manny Gaite send me half a million pesos?” (Manny Gaite is now an Associate Commissioner of the powerful Securities and Exchange Commission, and has been promised a seat as associate justice of the highest tribunal before his Dona exits, if she ever will).

Eighth, “if not because of GMA and FG, why would I be asked to fax my letter to the office of (Presidential Assistant for Special Concerns) Medy Poblador?” (As every cabinet member except ES Ermita will privately admit, Poblador, the relative of Cardinal Rosales of Manila, is now THE most powerful factotum in the stinking palace beside the stinking river).

Ninth, “if not because of GMA and FG, why would it be necessary to give (Former NEDA Director General and now SSS President) Romulo Neri executive privilege that was upheld even by the Supreme Court?” (To ensure he keeps his silence in future Senate hearings of any kind, Neri retains cabinet rank, even if the SSS is a privately-funded government fiduciary.)

And tenth, “if not because of GMA and FG, why have numerous cases been filed against me, while the one case I filed against them over a year ago is still under preliminary investigation?”

We should all continue to demand for answers to Mr. Lozada’s questions. As
we should persist in finding out the truth about several other issues that have yet to see closure.

Hello Garci. The case of the overpriced and fake bottled fertilizers peddled to missing beneficiaries by one Joc-Joc Bolante, soon to be “governor” of the Roxas principality called Capiz, unless sense gets the better of Mar’s comprovincianos.

Of more recent vintage, who really paid for the haute cuisine dinner at Le Cirque, and the pig-out steak dinner at Bobby Van’s, or Wolfgang’s, or David Bouly? And where did Mikey and his Angela really get the money to buy a Beach Drive mansion in the US of A? And Dato his condominium unit at pricey Gramercy upon Nob Hill in San Francisco by the bay?

Oh, and who really ordered the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, despite full security component at the international airport? Cory had died forty days ago, and now his son Noynoy seeks to be president of the benighted land, and yet, to this very day, we do not know who masterminded the dastardly deed.

And how many billions, really, did Marcos purloin, and can we ever, ever, get that back for the suffering millions of our poor people? How many billions have succeeding presidents made during their term of office? The previous president for instance, has been convicted of plunder by the Sandiganbayan, and then instantly pardoned by the successor who usurped his office. Did we ever find the truth? Do we even care to seek the truth?

Truth, our faith and everyone else tells us, “shall set us free”.

We are not free of the bondage of poverty and hopelessness. We are not free of the hobgoblins of our past. We are not free from injustice because justice is paid for, or afraid to know and confront the truth. We are not free from the shackles of feudalism; we have just foolishly labelled it democracy.

We are not free because we do not care about the truth.

Not so fearless forecasts

It’s early days yet. Many things could and would happen, even after the early withdrawal of Mar Roxas and his endorsement of Noynoy Aquino as the standard-bearer of their Liberal Party in the forthcoming presidential elections.

Their party has announced a Noynoy-Mar tandem, even if formally, Aquino has yet to declare. This has become standard operating procedure in Philippine politics. Candidates play jele-jele bago quiere, the pidgin Hispa-noy translation for playing coy. “Aayaw-ayaw pero kiliting-kiliti”, my yaya, Ate Elisa used to say. In the case of Noynoy, it’s beyond kiliti. Sadyang gusto.

In the case of Mar, it’s relief. Now he has time to smell the flowers and take care of his private life. At least until he goes for Number Two. To accept the LP draft, Mar is likely to first wait at who the possible competition will be. He can after all run for re-election as senator, and easily come out first among twelve.

Noy, child of destiny his supporters hope to make him, will have little time even for the love of his life, Councilwoman Shalani Soledad of Valenzuela, who used to be a youth volunteer of Ping Lacson, later a member of his Senate staff.

Young Chiz Escudero, one of the three or four topnotchers in presidential surveys, is a shoo-in for vice-president if elections were held today. His former buddies in the lower House kept whispering that it would be a Villar-Chiz tandem, and their camp asked SWS to do a rider question on tandems. The June voters, still mesmerized and ga-ga over Villar’s airtime blitz, gave the tandem its highest approval.

But Escudero turned the tables on C-5 at Taga. He declared with severe finality that he would not “in conscience” join somebody who does not personify the good governance that he advocates. Ouch! Tinaga si Mr. Itik! Ah, the determination of the youth, attaboy! Mumbling that Chiz was just being “immature”, the duet of Gilbert and Adel could only dourly state, “kung ayaw mo, huwag mo”. He, he, he, na-semplang kayo.

Meanwhile, Ping Lacson fired a shot into the bow of an Erap redux sailboat. The former president, chanting the need for unity, kept threatening to run if the rest of the opposition would not unite behind a single candidate. “Uniting” meant giving way to him, as if he was some kind of political demi-god. I remember Lacson sometime in 2002 describing Erap as some kind of a “spiritual” leader for the opposition. I cringed in utter discomfort, lest people look at me as I was his spokesperson then, and later Ping admitted wrong choice of words.

“Why don’t you be the first to withdraw?”, Ping asked his former boss. And Erap (or Erap’s spokesperson) was livid, “How dare you lecture the former president, you who wouldn’t give in to Erap’s choice of FPJ in 2004?” So now Lacson says he will deliver a privilege speech in the Senate, and let the chips fall where they may.

Amidst all this excitement within the opposition, there is little the acolytes of Dona Gloria could say or do. They have a “reluctant” candidate in Vice-President Noli, who has kept them guessing all these months. The eager-beavers, Bayani and Gibo, wait in the wings. Gibo even struts proudly with an ID tag proclaiming his admiration for his Dona, never mind if he is perceived as “tuta” even by the soldiers. BF of course admires only his own dogged determination.

In the last Pulse Asia Ulat of late July and early August, Gibo garnered 4 votes out of 1,800 respondents. Bayani had 18. And Noli got 16% or 288 votes. That should be enough to daunt any level-headed person, but since Noli was still playing coy (maybe because no financial figures had been assured), the palace gets 49 governors to declare for Gibo. That’s 61% of all the provincial CEO’s in the land. Noli only has 16% of the sample voters polled. He, he, he. Gibo’s spirits soar, thinking perhaps that these Janus-faced governors could deliver the votes of their constituents. One of them, a lady friend of mine, used to be for Mar, and also Chiz, and now likely also for Noynoy. But Gibo at 0.02%, wow!

November 30 fast approaches. As of today, that’s only 82 days away. Unless automation is stopped by the Supreme Court, that’s when every candidate for every post will file.

And come November 30, 2009, there will be the following candidates (Pollyanna’s and nuisance candidates not included):

Because his numbers are high, thanks to the billions he had spent, Manny Villar of the Nacionalista Party will definitely run. His vice-president? Maybe Kiko Pangilinan. The Wednesday “nationalists”.

Noli de Castro might bite into the GMA apple, provided he is assured the “juices” haven’t dried up. Gilbert is the PaLaKa fallback, not Bayani. If Noli does not bite into the poisoned tree, then it has to be Gibo. All he needs is to garner 10%, they assure him, because Gabby Claudio assures that the humongous party machinery can deliver, by “command”, another 15%. Vamos a ver. FVR won in 1992 as Cory’s anointed, by getting a mere 23.4% of the total. But aside from the ARMM, where governors who likewise read the surveys are susceptible to change their minds at the last minute, no other place in this benighted land can give a command performance. Certainly not by command of a hated lame duck president. Noli might take Gibo as his veep. But Noli will not run for veep at all, so Gibo, if he is chosen by his Dona, may have to take in Dick Gordon, or BF, or maybe Speaker Nograles. Why not Martin Romualdez? That should be a “circus”, in French at that.

Erap will file his certificate of candidacy on November 30. I cannot predict who his vice-presidential candidate will be. If he is disqualified, his party cannot nominate a substitute candidate, not even his veep. Jojo Binay would rather run as vice-president to another, his protestations of loyalty to Estrada notwithstanding. Believe me.

Now, if midway through the campaign, Erap’s numbers are not as re-assuring of victory as they were in 1998, and if his lawyers advise him that the high tribunal will not likely give his political double-take its benediction, the former president is bound to withdraw, and endorse the one candidate with whom he feels a greater level of affinity with (whether the candidate’s or the party he belongs to). His endorsement value might work with voters of the E income level. And when he withdraws, his vice-president cannot substitute.

Chiz Escudero, I predict (it’s really a no-brainer) will be the candidate of the Nationalist People’s Coalition. If Loren Legarda agrees to slide down to the vice-presidency, it will be a Chiz-Loren tandem, pretty strong from where we sit. But if Loren eschews another run for the second post, Chiz could pair with Ping Lacson or Jojo Binay. Still pretty strong.

Will Chiz not prefer to run for vice-president, where, analysts say his numbers are assured? His party, the NPC, seems determined to run a full slate this time. And Chiz is quite an adventurous character, with a prodigious gift for communication none of the other candidates could better.

And now comes Noynoy. The concept of pedigree, his and Mar’s, sounds nice to the elite, but in a tough campaign, pedigree holds little water, and could even be turned into a liability among the “masa”. “Sila lang ba ang bukod-tanging anak ng Diyos?”, I could almost hear the other candidates, or their spokespersons, appeal to the D and E, who altogether comprise 85-90% of the electorate. But the Liberal Party has already chosen their tandem, and so to the hustings will these sons of the political elite march.

My not so fearless forecast?

Come the starting gate, there will be five: Villar and whoever else GMA anoints --- that’s two for one side. Arrayed against them will be Erap, Chiz and Noynoy, for the opposition side.

When Erap withdraws, there will be four down to the finish line. Chiz and Noynoy for the forces of reform; Villar and whoever GMA anoints for the forces of business-as-usual. Mar, in his withdrawal speech, calls this the “fight between Good and Evil”.

* * *

In our Thursday article last week where we analyzed Mar’s retreat, we wrote that the “Black and White movement, along with a few columnists, turned up the heat on a still grieving family…(such that) Noynoy felt like a challenge was upon him, and there was a legacy of leadership the burden of which he had to face”.

Ging Deles, also my colleague at the FSGO, and Leah Navarro told me this wasn’t so. In fairness, they did not weigh in for either Mar or Noynoy. They told me that they just left the two to talk and decide things for themselves. Just as the rest of the Liberal Party stalwarts aver. They were all too stunned at the sudden course of things.

* * *

So in the end, who will make it to become the 15th president of the benighted land? It’s early days. These are not yet “fearless” forecasts.

But let me be clear. I will never go for business-as-usual. No matter how marginal change may be under a polity so corrupted and a society so diseased, there should be some light at the end of the benighted tunnel if we as a people choose between two who are credible enough when they call themselves the agents of reform.

It’s not a consummation we would highly desire, preferring revolutionary reform in its stead, but with a people so patient, so persevering, so unwilling to undertake risks and so afraid to cut the Gordian knot, we just may have to plod along.

The morning after

What is this?

The morning after Mar Roxas’ beau geste, in simple eloquence delivered at a Club Filipino press conference, traditional politicians hoping to sit beside their new driver Noynoy in his jeep to Malacanang start falling all over, acting like they were the progenitors of the sacrifice, offering their own picayune and irrelevant ambitions as me-too willingness to abstain, and forthwith surrounding the “man of the hour” as if they were bodyguards on his Senate payroll.

Which naturally riled the sensibilities of Mar’s friends, including his fiancée Korina Sanchez, who could not control her angst against some people, journalists as well as trapos, who pushed Noynoy at the expense of Mar.

Another friend of Mar who happens to be my friend likewise told me that Noy confessed to Mar that he could no longer say no to the draft (which overwhelmed Mar as a political tsunami). Mar just took Noynoy’s word; Cory’s son wanted it, and he gave in. Thus did this common friend of ours explain away what I wrote about yesterday as “too soon the retreat”.

There were no hidden strategies, no one step backward, two steps forward cunning, just noblesse oblige, not a surrender, not cutting investment losses, but pure sacrifice. Well, as a friend I would give Mar the benefit of the doubt.

Just as Ping Lacson said in an ambush interview also the day after, where after stating that “internal yan sa partido nila (the Liberal Party), their fellow senator lauded both Mar and Noynoy, as men who “at least sigurado tayo hindi mangungurakot” (they are not thieves). On whether Mar decided all too soon, while Noynoy could not decide with finality as yet, Lacson again said “that’s internal within their party and between them”, while wondering aloud if this was “part of a strategic plan because after it happened, magaganda ang reviews na nakuha ni Mar…’di natin alam…abangan ang kahihinatnan.”

It is the same comment I heard from other politicians and political tacticians, even from the provinces. They probably could not accept Mar’s beau geste as less than pre-meditated, and view Noynoy’s coyness as political theatre. Indeed, by prolonging the suspense, Noynoy is able to buy time to test the waters (he is in Davao today to “feel the pulse”, hosted by long-time Cory supporter, businessman Chito Ayala) and see if those who profess faith in his genes could put their money where their mouth is. For truly, an enterprise as grand as the quest for the presidency cannot be won by mere yellow shirts and Laban hand signs. Noynoy and the family would be foolhardy to invest Ninoy and Cory’s legacy to the perilous shoals of political combat without at least assurance of a good fight.

Politics after all, is war. And war is not won by saliva or printer’s ink, or mere beau geste’s; it is won by bullets and petrol and other war materiel. And the right strategic directions.

Which brings me now to Mar’s eloquent heart-tug last Tuesday, the first of September, in the “ghost month” of the lunar calendar of the present year. “Noy has made it clear to me that he wants to carry the torch of leadership. The parting of our beloved President Cory has reawakened a passion among us”, Roxas said. And then he adds, as in a call to arms, “I see this as fuel to bring us to the realization of our dreams: Good will win over evil”.

Noynoy is fuel, as in the flame of a torch? Who shall bear the torch then? The Liberal Party, it would seem, because both he and Noy are Liberals.

And when he says Good versus Evil, pray tell us, who are good and who are evil? Is Villar “evil”? I agree, decidedly so, what after the full details of C-5 at Taga, the Bangko Sentral-Norzagaray heists, and other skeletons are viewed in all its naked gore. Are Noli or Gibo, or whoever shall bear the standards of Dona Gloria, to be categorized as “evil”? Is Erap “evil” too? Are Chiz and Jojo and Loren and BF, even Grace Padaca, all “evil”? Specify, Mar. Only the Liberal Party is pure and immaculate? Breathtaking!

I was reminded of “values” versus “desires” when in a research briefing, my advocacies against graft and corruption were rudely dashed by the survey findings that the electorate out there no longer view corruption as a major issue (only 7% listed it as number one in their issue priority scale) while the overwhelming majority consider high prices and joblessness, “la political del estomago” as THE issue. The even sadder reality, based on FGD’s I have seen all over the land, for candidates local as well as national, is that the voter market seems to have succumbed with utter resignation to the gut question of “what’s in it for me?” as in never mind if these are crumbs from graft, provided “naaambunan ako”. What a country! But then again, that is the market reality. No wonder the Eraps and the Villars and the Nolis find resonance more than the decent guys like Mar and Noy and Ping and Chiz. But of course, these are early days.

Noynoy, wisely, will not be rushed. Whether this is scripted theatre or reality check, or both, he bides his time before categorical declaration is made. Like his mother Cory, he will seek the counsel of prayer. Yes, he feels, but wait…this is not just a matter of feelings.

What I do find queer is how otherwise highly educated and intelligent people rush with their hearts and throw their minds to the wind, even as the fate of the nation hangs in the balance. And what I find unable to accept is that in this day and age, in what is supposed to be an era of democratic ideals and beliefs, we find many and their mothers beguiled by the crap that genes ought to be the basis of choice. As in the resurrection of the foolish “divine right of kings”.

I am reminded of a running television ad that says, “kapag maganda ang puno, maganda ang bunga”. It’s been on the airwaves for a month or more, and the frequency is second only to Manny Villar’s cono-cono and trapo-tropa tomfoolery, and the net result is a rating improvement to one solid percentage point. At least that’s better than 0.2%, which is what the vice-presidential candidate’s presidential partner got. But hey, naniniwala pa ba tayo sa mga pamana , and do we still acknowledge bloodline as determinant of character?

This is of course not to question Noynoy’s character, as it is decidedly better than most of us, but the fate of a nation cannot be a matter of genes, as well Noynoy and Mar ought to know themselves.

As a respected pollster intimated to me last Wednesday, “will it sustain”? The same question probably bugs Noynoy, except that Mar saw it as political tsunami, his heart over his mind. And Mar is perceived by the “masa” out there as all mind and little heart, padyak and palengke ads notwithstanding. Even as they are fooled by the “maawain” and “matulungin” perceptions that currently favour the Erap’s and Villar’s of this benighted country.

I have received a deluge of reactions to Mar’s sacrifice, and it’s really not tsunami force, not even a gale force as yet. Here is one: “I think prodding Noynoy to run on the hopes of recapturing the "yellow magic" sparked since his mother's death smacks of the very kind of political bane we all would want to change in this country.” The reader twits me thus, “I think you are under-estimating Mar and over-estimating Noynoy too much” (not me, maybe Conrad de Q, Korina’s object of angst)…”Mar has a lot better record as a legislator than Noynoy” (I don’t want to get into that debate yet). Another wrote: “Noynoy doesn’t even seem to get his political footing right. No disrespect, but we are way past religious and spiritual discernment. With the gargantuan and seemingly insurmountable problems the country face…vacillation would be a luxury we cannot afford”.

Even Erap, the man who cannot seem to find any vindication except if he gets back the presidency he foolishly lost, says other presidentiables should follow Mar’s nobility, and follow suit, for the rather ignoble end of perhaps getting him back into Malacanang. He wants others to withdraw, and then he will follow suit. And he wants to be a “leader”…and he wants to be the “unifying” leader. Oh well, as I have kept repeating in this space, all that is crap. Erap will run, and he wants everyone to give way to him. That is his concept of “uniting” the opposition. That is, if the Supreme Court, which is not opposition, will allow him to.

My friend Tony Abaya wrote that in a recent Strictly Politics talk show where he failed to attend, he would have asked Noynoy to “list down his legislative accomplishments” for the nine years that he was in the lower House and the two years he has been senator. And then Tony asks, “Why are some people stumbling over each other in pushing him to run for president?”

A bit irreverently by the lights of the “yellow guards”, Abaya asks, “Are we back to the Dark Ages in medieval Europe when ignorant peasants were dazzled by Magick and were stampeded to Trust in Unseen Forces by equally ignorant monks as the Masters of our Fate and the Shapers of our Destiny?”

For this writer, what I cannot countenance is that 23 years and four presidents since Marcos flew to Hawaii, it seems many still want to paint this benighted land by the distinct colours of yellow versus red, white and blue.

As 60’s music icon Joan Baez lamented in a song, “When will we ever learn? When will we e---e---ever learn?”